Involved practices need to show commitment from top leadership and management (including support from one identified sponsor) to education, re-education and active engagement. The most frequent cause of failure in any improvement effort is lack of sufficient engagement from top and middle management.

Practice Commitment Tree

The commitment is formalised in a memorandum of understanding (MOU), for which an extract can be found below.

  • Willingness to create internal and external networks for coordination, guidance and technical support
  • Willingness to actively foster an organizational structure supportive of process excellence and quality improvement
  • Ensure a minimum of two members of the practice team attend a three day course on Quality Improvement (EQUIP in Action); at least five members of the practice team attend the half day course on Quality Improvement (Fundamentals of QI Methodology)
  • Take part in a 1 hour per week or 2 hours every other week, dedicated Quality Improvement session with the practice coach
  • Update Life QI with project documentation on a regular basis, to ensure best practice is shared across the borough and in order for the EQUIP team to track progress
  • Adhere to the data sharing principles as set out below