Our 2019/20 Annual Report showcases some examples of the Research and Improvement work across the organisation over the past year. For more up-to-date information regarding what we are doing as a team during the Covid-19 pandemic, please take a look at the Solent Covid Evaluation and Learning webpage.
The end of last year (March 2020) has required massive change in our Academy activity - like all NHS services, we’ve had to pause most of our normal tasks and adapt to new ways of working and supporting the Trust.
Approximately a third of the team has been re-deployed, most are working at home and we’ve suspended our training programme. We were required to cease all non Covid-19 research studies (keeping only one study active for safety reasons), and most ‘usual’ audit and evaluation activity. But, as with other services, we’ve adapted our focus.
We are now co-ordinating and leading on a Trust-wide programme of learning and evaluation of Solent’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. For this we are using a rapid evaluation approach, which allows for ‘live learning’ and adaptation (rather than waiting for a range of findings at the end of an event). We are listening to staff and patients about their experiences, gathering quantitative data from feedback and differential service use, and gathering case studies of innovative practice to support shared learning.
Covid-19 notwithstanding, we have supported a broad range of research and improvement activity over the course of 2019/20, and there’s been some big moments for the team.
In November 2019, we moved into our new facility; a space designed for community engagement and learning; an office and meeting environment aligned to our learning and development space in Portsmouth. On the same site, we now have a Clinical Trials Pharmacy and fully equipped clinical space to support research. This opens up opportunities for a greater range of trials, and more commercial activity.
In July we held our annual conference, “Learning Together - a Journey to Excellent Care,” our third accredited ‘Patients Included’ event. This means the event is co-designed and delivered by our patient ambassadors, the Side-by-Side Network, including patient speakers and workshop leads. We had almost 200 delegates on the day.
Other highlights have included being named the most research active care organisation in the National Institute for Health Research’s Annual League table, and launching our Quality Improvement Leadership programme. Our continued focus on co-design and partnership working includes an expansion of our Side-by-Side Network, the launch of a ‘Join In’ toolkit and the development of a patient-led QI training package.
Activity in numbers:
