Quality improvement (QI) programmes

QI methodology in mental health programmes

The NCCMH has developed deep specialism in designing, delivering and evaluating programmes that use QI methodology.

We are proud to showcase an extensive portfolio of high-impact programmes we have delivered across a broad range of mental health services. Areas of focus include staff wellbeing, suicide prevention and reducing restrictive practice. Please see some examples on the right.

Throughout 2021/22 we worked with 38 teams in England and Wales to understand and improve the experience, wellbeing and joy of staff in the Enjoying Work Collaborative. Each week, the teams completed a survey that asked their members three questions based on their experience of work in the past week. The results showed an improvement across the three outcome measures.

Key results from the Enjoying Work Collaborative are:

a 51% improvement in the percentage of people who have enjoyed being at work frequently
a 41% improvement in the percentage of people who are experiencing no symptoms of burnout
a 42% improvement in the percentage of people who are extremely likely to recommend their team as a place to work

Our latest QI collaborative is focused on demand, capacity and flow within inpatient mental health settings and was launched in January 2023. This 18-month project aims to:

support community and inpatient teams within mental health services to understand demand, develop and test change ideas to improve flow, reduce waiting lists and manage demand in creative ways

provide opportunities for peer-to-peer sharing and learning through regular in-person events

In 2018, the NCCMH supported 38 inpatient mental health wards across England to reduce their use of restrictive practice using a QI approach.In 2021, NHS England commissioned the scale up and spread of the reducing restrictive practice (RRP) pilot as part of the Mental Health Safety Improvement Programme (MH-SIP). The scale-up aims to take the learning from the pilot, including the main areas pilot teams focused on to reduce restrictive practices and ideas tested, to assist teams as they start working on their own projects. RRP: Our impact
Since its inception in 2018, participating wards have had numerous success stories.Wards have been testing over 350 change ideas since the Reducing Restrictive Practice Collaborative started and by February 2020 those ideas resulted in 24 out of 38 wards seeing reductions ranging from 25% to 100% in one or more measure of restrictive practice (number of physical restraints, seclusions and rapid tranquillisation episodes).

Over 18 months, there has been a 15% reduction in the overall use of restrictive practices among the 38 wards participating in the Reducing Restrictive Practice Collaborative.

Links to the full range of QI programmes in our portfolio:

Our related journal publications: