NHS Change Day 2015 is up and running and the pledges of support have been pouring in.

A 12-hour Changeathon webcast is currently live and running from 7am to 7pm where individuals, teams and campaigns across the NHS are talking about what they are doing for Change Day.

NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens describes Change Day as “a remarkable social movement for change” and made this year’s first pledge telling staff he will: “Help drive through change for people with learning disabilities”.

He added: “NHS Change Day is proof positive that the best way to improve care is to back the creativity, commitment and compassion of the Health Service’s 1.3 million inspirational staff, working alongside our patients and local communities.

“Speaking personally, I’m spending today talking to people with learning disabilities and their families about how to overhaul the support they get by giving them the clout to ensure their needs and choices really count.

“I’ll also be getting ‘dementia friendly’ training from Andy Tysoe, a nurse from Chester who has helped lead previous NHS Change Days.

“The bottom line is that today is a golden opportunity for each of us to grab the bull by the horns, and collectively make the thousands of individual changes to care that add up to truly enormous improvements for millions of our patients.”

NHS Change Day, is a grassroots movement of hundreds of thousands of health and care workers, patients, carers, volunteers and members of the public, all coming together to harness their collective energy, creativity and ideas to make a change happen. Together each of their small actions will make a big difference in improving the care and wellbeing of those who use the NHS.

Some of the other pledges for change made in the run up to today include:

• Many people are going to become dementia friends or work to make their setting more dementia friendly.
• Finance staff from the NHS Isle of Wight Trust will spend time on the front line – from spreadsheets to bedsheets!
• Paired learning and shadowing.
• Staff working to upskill their colleagues and develop training.
• Ellen Betts of NHSBT will raise awareness of health and wellbeing activities for staff
• Staff at Shropshire CCG are being encouraged to take a 30 minute break away from their computers on change day.
• April Warren is going to develop a finance training package to simplify finance.
• Hannah Parkin aims to make her hospital dementia friendly.
• The Communications Team at Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust will be working towards the Plain English Campaign’s crystal mark.
• Margaret Grady is delivering dementia friends sessions in her local community.
• Vicki Adair is going to inspire others to be more patient.

You can view all of the actions on the NHS Change Day website.

It is hoped that Change Day 2015 can surpass both the 189,000 pledges of action made in 2013 and the phenomenal 500,000 made by individuals, teams and whole organisations last year.

Change Day began with a single tweet two years ago and since then has grown into a remarkable success story.

The ethos of Change Day is that staff, carers, patients and partners of the NHS know best what the most significant and beneficial changes are with their environment.

Last year’s incredible number of pledges included hundreds of thousands from the public who were asked to take part by pledging to ensure they turn up for GP and hospital appointments – or to warn their doctor if they are unable to keep them.

This helped to address the problem of missed appointments which costs the NHS millions of pounds every year.

Getting involved could not be simpler: think about a positive change you could help make to the NHS and the people it serves and then just do it. People making pledges can log them at www.changeday.nhs.uk

Everyone and anyone can choose to make the NHS better through the changes they choose to make, by sharing them and inspiring others.

As a grassroots movement, Change Day is also able to take part in and support other campaigns such as #HelloMyNameIs which was set up by terminally ill doctor Kate Granger and is now backed by more than 100 NHS Trusts. See more here: changeday.nhs.uk/campaigns/helloouraimis/

Change Day is also supporting “John’s Campaign” which calls for family & carers of people with dementia to be allowed to remain with them in hospital for as many hours of the day and night as necessary.

The campaign was set up by Nicci Gerrard who has written a blog about how it was inspired by her father.

• To find out more about Change Day and the Changeathon go their website. And you can join in the conversation on Twitter.