Improvement
Advancing leadership and embedding improvement approaches across health and care.
The NHS has the potential to secure a stronger and more sustainable future if we invest properly in leadership development and improvement. This is why we have further developed our leadership and improvement work, using our unique position as convenor of leaders across the whole health system to support our members in a more practical way.
We work with experts in leadership and improvement, including Q, which is part of The NHS Alliance, to help members access proven approaches and practical solutions to transformation challenges, creating the conditions for effective and lasting change.
Our member-only forums and development programmes offer an opportunity to step back, reflect, learn and gather support from peers, and to take away practical insights to apply to your own context.
We deliver high-impact development programmes, consultancy and learning offers, partnering across the NHS and beyond to build leadership and organisational capability, address sector challenges, and enable improvement at scale.
Benefit from:
- Expert-led programmes
- Better decisions through insight and learning
- Practical support that drives real-world change
Find the right programme or support for you
The Q Community
Q is a diverse and vibrant membership community for those working to improve and transform health and care across the UK and Ireland. Hosted by the NHS Alliance, Q is free to join and provides flexible opportunities to learn together, support each other and address health system challenges. Q community members gain access to events, resources, and a network of people tackling similar challenges.
System improvement support
Delivered in partnership with Q, we can help you develop your improvement strategy and transform services in priority areas. Our system improvement support applies of Q’s unique cross-system improvement framework and expert design and facilitation to your local context. This service can help you build shared understanding with system partners, co-create realistic, strategic plans for priority service areas or issues, and support you to innovate, design and deliver effective interventions for system-wide improvement.
Quality management systems support
Through Q, we help organisations to develop and embed effective, joined up approaches to planning, controlling, improving and assuring quality. Support is tailored to your needs and can include strategic QMS advice, senior leader, board or staff development, peer learning spaces and a comprehensive suite of tools and resources.
More about support for designing and implementing Quality Management Systems
Q Labs
Q Lab provides a range of innovation processes and brings people together to collaboratively design and test solutions for complex challenges in health and care services. It’s a proven approach which creates real change. The timeline, structure and methods are tailored to each Lab.
The Evolve Collaborative
A membership community empowering clinicians, boards and operational leaders to tackle the issues that matter most, centred on data and peer learning. Powered by advanced analytics, the collaborative enables trusts to compare performance across peers and regions, identify variation, and unlock in-year savings. Vibrant learning spaces provide a forum for leaders to share what works and drive improvements that make a tangible difference for patients.
Delivering hospital eye care closer to home
A programme supporting multidisciplinary teams across a neighbourhood, acute and ICS footprint to understand, plan and create the infrastructure and processes to move ophthalmology care closer to a home via optometry practices in local neighbourhoods.
Improving across the boundaries of acute and mental health
Delivered in partnership with NHS England's Mental Health Improvement Support Team, this programme strengthens and encourages cross-system working by supporting practical, real-time testing of improvement ideas across these boundaries.
Tackling Inequalities Leadership Programme
Practical support for EDI directors and senior responsible officers delivering strategic workforce and health equity programmes and interventions.
Diversity in Health and Care Partners Programme
Supporting health and care organisations to create more inclusive workplace cultures, where difference is welcomed and celebrated.
Discover more.
- Insights
Improving cardiovascular disease prevention across systems
16 July 2026
Seven key enablers for strengthening CVD prevention and supporting sustainable cross-system working.
Improvement
Prevention
- Insights
Quality strategy for NHS-funded care in England: what you need to know
14 July 2026
Our summary and analysis of NHS England's strategy to improve the quality of care across the NHS in England.
Quality
Improvement
- Insights
Delivering eye care closer to home: enabling it at scale from acute to community
8 July 2026
The core enablers for shifting eye care closer to home and the practical actions local systems can take to translate them into tangible steps.
Community
Health inequalities
Improvement
- Insights
Delivering hospital eye care closer to home: what needs to change nationally to enable scale
8 July 2026
Six enablers that would support change at a national level to enable consistent, safe and scalable delivery of eye care closer to home.
Community
Health inequalities
Improvement
- Insights
Delivering care closer to home: blueprint plan
8 July 2026
This practical guidance provides the key factors to consider when creating a local blueprint for service transformation, particularly for initiatives that bring care closer to home.
Community
Improvement
- Insights
Delivering care closer to home: financial planning checklist
8 July 2026
This checklist is designed to support organisations planning to implement service changes that move care from hospital settings into communitybased models.
Community
Improvement
Finance