Across our region we want to be the best at getting better, with continuous learning and improvement at the heart of everything we do, and in the way in which we work.
You may remember that in September 2022, we began to convene discussions about bringing together people and organisations with a passion for improvement, innovation and change in health and care.
These early discussions drew on previous successful work, such as the North East Transformation System and the Cumbria Learning and Improvement Community (CLIC).
We held our inaugural event, in September 2022, which drew a large attendance and enthusiastic response for the idea of building a learning and improvement community in our region.
This first meeting embraced a vision of becoming the best at getting better – with continuous learning and improvement at the heart of everything we do, and in the way in which we work.
Since holding our event, in September 2022, our community has grown from strength-to-strength.
Just this week we held our third event called – ‘always the right door’ – which focused on how we can ensure children, young people and families get the right mental health support at the right time.
This was one of our key priorities we set back in September alongside improving transfers of care. You can read more about our previous events here and a blog here.
It was fantastic day attended by more than 200 people including young people who shared their experiences with us, alongside a world café, enabling teams across the region to showcase their work and to share and learn from each other.
Following our first ever women’s health conference in the region we are establishing a collaborative to help improve the way in which the health and care system listens to women’s voices, and boost health outcomes for women and girls. Where members will have access to resources and information via our learning and improvement community website.
And you may have noticed our bulletin and our community has a new look and name.
From now onwards – Boost – will be the hub that brings people together to promote innovation, idea-sharing, networking, learning and improvement efforts across the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System. Find out more in the video below:
You can also explore our website (www.boost.org.uk), which will evolve over time, enabling people to sign up to our community, events, resources and tools, bulletin and blogs, and find out more about the work being developed.
Working across health and care, we’re facing some real shared challenges, and it’s complex work that none of us can do on our own.
With partners across the region, we have developed our integrated care strategy called ‘Better health and wellbeing for all‘ which aims to tackle these challenges and sets key priority areas to ensure longer and healthier lives for all our communities – which are also a focus for our learning and improvement programme too.
So, while Boost is hosted by the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, we really want to emphasise that our community is open to anyone with an interest in driving forward change in health and care. You can read more about the approach and offer here.
All partners across our system can become members. You can be from any discipline and at any stage in your career, all you need is a passion to improve health and care in the region.
Current members include people with lived experiences, local authorities, the NHS, public health, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE), academia, private sector providers and many more.
So please, if don’t already, follow us on social media. We would really welcome your support in helping us to encourage other people to join.
I look forward to working with you and your colleagues – through our community – so that we can make the North East and North Cumbria the place where you can live and work, and be involved in helping our health and care services improve and get better.
Samantha Allen
