Tell us a bit about you
My name is Ranj Parmar, I am a founding member of Side-by-Side. Side-by-Side is a patient network that collaborates with the Academy of Research and Improvement to challenge, support, and hold staff to account. Our goal is to raise awareness and ensure that patients remain at the heart of everything they do. Since having a stroke in 2009, I noticed a gap in supporting a stroke survivor to become active again in society. Although there was support to reclaim the ability to walk, talk and perform specific everyday functions there wasn’t support for me to re-integrate into society and rebuild the person I was before my stroke. I wanted to contribute to society like I did before. Since then, I have been working with various organisations including the NHS, Research and Improvement organisations, universities, and businesses, to improve services and make them more patient-focused.
My name is Achika Moreau, and I've been a Side-by-Side member for over two years, with a strong focus on enhancing patient experiences. I've had both positive and negative experiences with healthcare services, and after encountering the latter, I became determined to prevent others from going through the same. When a friend introduced me to Side-by-Side, I was eager to join and contribute.
Tell us about the improvement initiative you're leading and why you chose to pursue it.
As a group, we regularly reflect on our identity and what we are trying to achieve. We had been having discussions about the diversity of voices in the group and service line experiences we have. Though we don’t claim to be fully representative of the local population, recognising that this is challenging to achieve, we are conscious that we should consider how diverse the group is and how we could strive to be more diverse and inclusive. We decided to embark on a Quality Improvement project to explore the topic and have a measurable outcome. We spent time coming up with a clear aim to provide direction for our initiative, using Quality Improvement tools to refine this, and put together a focus group with a vast skill set. Our aim was to increase our current membership by 10% with a focus on finding people with skills and experience that were missing from the current group.
What have you discovered so far?
After engaging with the broader group, we recognised the need to fully understand equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). It became clear that improvement efforts should not happen in isolation; collaboration and listening to others are crucial. To enhance our understanding, we decided to leverage our networks and bring in experts to guide us. We've been working with recognised NHS professionals to facilitate group discussions on current EDI legislation, policies, and understanding.
The next logical step was to assess our current diversity. We aimed to gather baseline data but soon realised that we needed additional skills to create an effective questionnaire in order to gather this. A member of our working party, who had the necessary enthusiasm and expertise, took the lead on this task. The process of developing the questionnaire has taken longer than expected, we spent considerable time discussing the right questions to ask, which has given us a deeper awareness of the complexities and sensitivities involved in conversations about diversity. After reviewing and editing the questionnaire, we have now shared with members and have begun collecting data.
What are your next steps?
One thing we’ve learned during this process is that next steps aren’t always clear. This journey has been unpredictable at times, and we’ve had to learn to be comfortable with not knowing where we’re headed. We realised we didn’t really know much about the diversity of the group beyond our assumptions and surface level knowledge of each other.
Developing the questionnaire, refining the aim, putting together a working party has taken more time than anticipated, however we knew we wanted to get it ‘right’ so the time was well spent. The discussions around the formation of the questionnaire and within the working party were informative and enabled us to make this feel like a collective effort.
Some actions we plan to take in the first instance, are to capture more data from members, analyse the baseline data we've gathered so far (14 responses) and share it with our Side-by-Side “colleagues”, collaboratively exploring any gaps. The EDI team will also be providing training to us and our fellow SBS members, as the subject matter experts. Once the training has been delivered, we will meet as a working party to analyse the questionnaire results and identify key areas to focus on.
What are your reflections so far?
It's important to acknowledge when you don't have all the answers; reaching out to others can be powerful.
Recognise when you're not the best person for a task and leverage the strengths of others on the project.
Utilise your networks and seek guidance from experts in the field.
Managing sensitive and potentially triggering conversations can be challenging, so creating a safe environment for open discussions is crucial. It's important to accept that we all see things differently, and that's okay.
Meaningful change and genuine learning take time; they don't happen overnight.
What has it meant to you to be involved/ leading on this project?
Ranj: Leading this project has reminded me of my days managing large global projects, making it a truly rewarding experience. It is a space in which I feel comfortable and thrive. It’s given me the opportunity to collaborate with various team members while deepening my understanding of improvement and EDI.
Achika: It has been an enlightening and positive experience to lead on this project. What makes this initiative unique is that it’s not just about involving patients; it’s led by them. Quality Improvement tools and principles are accessible to everyone, and there’s no better way to drive meaningful change than by empowering service users to take the lead on the initiatives they care about most.
What would you say to others looking to embark on improvement?
Quality Improvement really is for everyone. If we truly want to improve services and enhance the healthcare experience for patients and service users, they shouldn’t just be part of the process—they should be the most influential voice in the room.Quality improvement is a rewarding and insightful journey where patients and staff can grow their knowledge, build meaningful connections, and create positive change for everyone involved. It’s a journey full of unexpected twists and turns, so get ready for the ride. The destination will be well worth the time and effort invested.