UK Quality Collaboration (UKQC)

• Background
• Aims and objectives
• Key activities 
• How the UKQC is organised
• Membership criteria
• Guidance
• Secretariat Contact

Background:

Many organisations and representative bodies and groups work towards improvements in healthcare quality, alongside unaffiliated individuals, as part of their general wider roles in delivery of healthcare; other organisations in the public and private sectors are set up specifically to improve quality. The value of these specialist organisations, individuals representing groups operating at grass roots level within healthcare organisations, and interested individuals, collectively working together across these various boundaries, is that narrow sectional interests can be avoided and sectoral and professional boundaries overcome, with the result of enhanced learning and practice. It can also ensure that there is a counter-balance to the imposition of quality improvement from the centre, without engagement from the grass roots.

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The UKQC exists to represent, inform, sustain, improve and champion HQI, to share best practice, and to drive up standards in its delivery through individual, professional, and organisational practice change:

• UKQC will promote HQI;        
• UKQC will represent the interests of those working in HQI;        
• UKQC will share best practice in HQI;        
• UKQC will seek to inform and influence policy on HQI and healthcare policy more generally through implementation of lessons from HQI initiatives;        
• UKQC will champion the discipline and values of HQI;
• UKQC will strive to influence standards of quality in HQI through promotion of systematic, scientific and structured approaches.

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Key activities within the potential remit of HQI:

The UKQC, supported by HQIP, will undertake activities from the following list, subject to opportunity, funding, capacity and aspiration:

• Educational events such as conferences and seminars;        
• Promoting the need for research into the effectiveness of HQI;        
• Representing HQI work in liaison with the media, government in the UK and internationally;
• Producing consensus policy statements on best practice or policy direction;
• Support for development of membership bodies for representation of HQI professionals;
• Promoting knowledge brokering in HQI.

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How the UKQC is organised:

The UKQC is hosted by HQIP which provides secretarial functions. UKQC reviews its membership and organisation regularly.

It elects a chair from its membership.

The UKQC will continue to meet as regularly as its members deem necessary to carry out its activities under the aforementioned aims and objectives, and to plan and deliver activity under the list given above.

HQIP will seek to support the group through the secretariat function and by communicating the view of the alliance in discussion with policy bodies and its commissioning bodies. Where possible, HQIP will seek to identify funds or obtain funds to support specific UKQC activity. HQIP will actively communicate UKQC work. HQIP, in its mainstream contract work, will seek to deliver the ideas of the collaboration subject to the views of its commissioners.

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Criteria for membership of the group:

At the last UKQC meeting the group membership criteria was reviewed in line with this consultation. The revised criteria are given below. Once all new members of the group are appointed, a new Chair will be elected.

These criteria reflect the discussions and decisions of the UKQC group as of March 2010.

• The applicant’s goals should be in line with the UKQC’s aims and objectives as stated above;
• Persons can put themselves forward for group candidacy as individuals or as representatives of groups of professionals, or as officers of specialist quality improvement organisations outside of the NHS;
• The UKQC is independent of government so membership is not open to persons acting as representatives of NHS organisations, including those which specifically work on quality, although it may include persons who represent disciplines or groups of people working in NHS organisations (e.g. Nurses, Doctors, Pharmacists, Allied Health Professionals, Dentists, Clinical Auditors, Managers, Patient Representatives etc);
• In addition, identified individual persons with a specialism in quality improvement may be invited to join the group by invitation;
• All other interested parties or applicants that do not readily fall into existing categories will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Any organisation or individual working to improve healthcare quality meeting these criteria may be invited to join the group, subject to numbers. If an unmanageable number of organisations and individuals’ wishes to join, the group will review its organisational structure and appoint to its steering committee through an electoral process. All nominees will be considered by the group through democratic procedures (e.g. general meeting).

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Guidance 

UKQC / Good Governance Institute 'Quality & Cost' report and maturity matrix >>

'Quality & Cost' discussion paper >>

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Secretariat Contact

Nominations should be sent to ukqc@hqip.org.uk

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