Improvement through collaboration

Building on early advice and support to NHS Quest we are now working closely with this member convened network of NHS Trusts to help strengthen and develop cross boundary collaboration and learning.

NHS Quest is a member-led network that aims to enable Foundation Trusts to aspire to a level of excellence in quality and safety that is beyond all current expectations.

It aims to deliver this through a new model of working for collaborative improvement for NHS Providers.  Instead of clustering around traditional geographical boundaries, Quest member organisations have committed to networking with a defined group of like-minded organisations across England in pursuit of a strategic focus and a set of shared ambitions around safety and quality, positioning these as their core business strategy.

Importantly, Quest is not centrally–initiated or led.  Its membership model has the potential to create a distributed model of power and leadership that foregrounds both individual and collective benefit and the development of social capital within a community of practice.

Previous attempts to improve, share and learn across organisational boundaries[1] in the NHS have taught us that transformational impact at an organisational scale is more likely when ambitious programmes of improvement are combined with active attempts to network within and across executive, clinical leadership and frontline levels[2].

In the longer term NHS Quest also aims to develop its voice as an advocate for policies and practices that support its aims and develop a dialogue with local and national commissioners based on its learning and insights.