17-20 May 2021 11:00 AM
This year we're combining our quality and governance conferences into one event which will run virtually over four days from 17-20 May 2021.
This conference asks how we can best meet the challenge of ensuring quality care in an environment of ever-increasing complexity, against a backdrop of the unprecedented challenge.
The event explores how fresh thinking helped in what was an incredible system-wide response over the last eighteen months. It asks, can the lessons learned continue to help as system integration moves further forward, demand and capacity continues to challenge, and as staff increasingly rely on compassionate leadership and the right cultures to cope amid the dilemmas of the day-to-day?
The NHS Providers' Governance and Quality conference is a unique experience – it's your chance to hear from expert speakers and meet with members in the sector who are committed to improving governance and board performance.
Our event, taking place from 17-20 May 2021 online, is the only kind in the sector, giving you a variety and depth of guidance on the topics that matter to you – information you won't find anywhere else.
"A great opportunity to refresh your thinking, learn from others and network with peers."Previous delegate
This event provides the platform for the thinking, discussion and debate that lies at the heart of your role. Enjoy networking throughout the conference on Twitter using #governancequality21 to join in the conversation with other NHS professionals to share insight and best practice.
Follow #governancequality21 to be the first to hear when speakers and chairs are announced.
Programme – Day 1 – 17 May 2021
The NHS is in the midst of a period of far-reaching change. As collaborative approaches develop across the sector, how do we identify and preserve what has worked well over the last 15 years to improve patient and service user care? How do we ensure that any changes made build on past experiences and consistently add value? NHS Providers deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery will highlight the key elements of the current governance and oversight model that we need to maintain. She’ll explore the role these play in building a culture focused on quality, and the pitfalls that we need to avoid as we move towards collaboration between providers and into system working.
The last 18 months have seen a huge amount of learning and reflection for everyone in the health and care service, as new risks and challenges came at pace. System working also gives rise to new risks alongside the consideration that past experience will not always be sufficient to identify and manage it. It requires constructive challenge and a rigorous approach to assurance. This session will reflect on how recent experiences can help address these questions and provides solutions to the issues that are likely to be encountered by those representing their trusts in systems and collaborations.
This session shares learning on how to be prepared for the longer-term impacts of traumatic events on staff. Hear about the successful strategies used during other extended crisis situations, and how you as leaders can apply them to support your workforce as the pandemic evolves and the service recovers. Hear from a fellow trust on the longer-term steps they are taking to ensure appropriate continuing support to their staff, recognising the intense and potentially traumatic situations that healthcare staff can face, both during the pandemic and beyond.
Programme – Day 2 – 18 May 2021
There has been significant focus on learning from adverse events for many years, which has had a transformative effect on healthcare, producing innovations in patient care, an active scholarly community, and genuine efforts to involve the public in the ongoing evolution of care delivery. However, reducing harm systematically over the longer term has been challenging for trusts, alongside a growing crisis of staff burnout, recruitment and retention issues, and a growth in regulatory demands. The pandemic has exacerbated these issues. What have we learned matters most in creating the conditions for safe, high quality care in a complex healthcare environment and how can we approach safety differently?
Exploring the ideas outlined by Professor Woodward in her opening session, we host a conversation with trust leaders who are seeking to enable balanced, proactive and positive approaches to managing the safety of patients. Find out too how their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic have influenced their thinking.
The trust board bears responsibility and accountability for effective incident management in its organisation. This session outlines why behaviours that focus on openness, just culture and learning and improvement matter as boards undertake this role. We also explore how placing people at the centre of the board’s response can transform staff and patient experiences, drive improvement, save money and reduce workforce pressures.
Programme – Day 3 – 19 May 2021
Cognitive bias in decision making can have far reaching negative impacts. Boards and individual directors need to be aware of the likelihood of cognitive bias affecting their thinking and be proactive in ensuring it has minimal impact on their decision making. This session identifies different types of cognitive bias and signposts techniques to avoid and mitigate them.
Being answerable for the actions and decisions made by leaders is part and parcel of good governance. But accountability is not just about responding to the regulators, commissioners and the national bodies, it should also be about involving and listening to those who use services and local communities. This session debates what kind of local accountability mechanisms we need in order to ensure local voices are engaged in the governance structures of a system, including ensuring we hear from those who are not always heard.
An opportunity to discuss the upcoming NHS bill with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The legislation needs to do more than place systems and collaboratives on a formal footing and to establish NHS England and NHS Improvement as an organisation in its own right. It needs to facilitate better operation of the NHS and ensure decision making powers are at the right level to deliver for communities with accountability resting with those responsible it. This session will examine the latest proposals for legislation, give broader perspectives and provide the opportunity to feedback your thoughts direct to the DHSC bill team.
Programme – Day 4 – 20 May 2021
Across all industries, employee silence costs relationships, creativity, engagement and performance. Yet often our colleagues can stay silent despite knowing of a problem or opportunity and how to address it. We know from experience that in healthcare, silence can also costs lives. This session explores the reasons for silence and what the perceptions of speaking and listening up are in the NHS. We consider what blind spots leaders can have and what can be done.
Hear directly from trusts who are tackling the challenges that can lie in creating an environment where all staff feel safe and able to speak up candidly, to ask for help, share concerns and offer ideas. Reflecting on the role of leadership culture and behaviours, speakers will share their personal experiences and how this relates to high quality care and their approach to board assurance.
Trust-wide approaches to continuous quality improvement are fundamental to high-quality care. Hear from two trusts at different stages of pursuing a trust-wide approach to improvement. They reflect on their personal journeys taken to accept and adapt to a new approach at board level, and what they wish they had known as they started out.
All sessions will be available on demand for 30 days after the event.
At this year’s conference we're running a virtual showcase, giving NHS trusts the opportunity to share good practice, facilitate discussions and network with peers.
The Governance and Quality showcase will feature how trusts have met the challenges of ensuring quality care for patient and service users in a complex environment. You'll hear from trusts who have developed new ways of thinking in key areas including:
If you have any questions or concerns please get in touch with our events team.