Section 1. About this booklet
This is an easy-read booklet. It is an accessible version of a guide to Improving Experience of Care.
The guide is from The National Quality Board.
The guide talks about a shared commitment for those working in health and care systems to improve experience of care.
When a word or phrase is difficult, we have explained it in blue writing.
We have split this booklet up into different sections to make it easier to read. You may want to read it in stages.
You may want support to read through this booklet.
In yellow boxes there are links to other helpful documents.
Section 2. The National Quality Board
The National Quality Board is where national organisations with responsibility for good quality care come together.
In 2015 The National Quality Board published the first Improving Experience of Care guide.
The guide explains why a good experience of care is important.
Integrated care systems include NHS services, local authorities and other local partners.
Together they plan health and care services for their population.
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us more about health inequalities.
Health inequalities are the unfair differences in people’s health across groups of people.
These differences may make things harder for people and limit their chance to live a longer, healthier life.
Health inequalities do not have to happen.
We have learned a lot about working with people who experience health and care to make things better.
To keep up to date, The National Quality Board has updated its Improving Experience of Care information.
Click here to read ‘A shared commitment to quality for those working in health and care systems’
Click here to read the ‘National Guidance on System Quality Groups’
Click here to read about our shared ambition for compassionate, inclusive leadership
Section 3. High-quality care
High-quality care has 3 parts:
- Clinical effectiveness
- Safety
- Experience of care
This booklet is about one of these 3 parts of high quality care: Experience of care
We will explain these phrases further on in the guide.
Co-production as default for improvement
Using insight and feedback
Improving experience of care at the core priority work programmes
Section 4. A shared understanding
The National Quality Board asks all of us to share their commitment.
A commitment is an agreement to do something.
To work together in our local Integrated care systems
To improve peoples’ experience of care.
This is in health services and care services.
And across clinical pathways.
Clinical pathways is the name we use to describe the best way to make care happen.
It means we use the evidence about what works best to organise and to provide care.
A person’s care experience starts from their very first contact with the health and care system.
And it continues right through to their last.
This may be years after their first contact.
And can include end-of-life care.
Section 5. Ali’s experience of care
Ali is someone who has come into the system to receive care.
Harmony is a care worker who meets Ali.
Here are 3 examples of Ali’s experiences of care or treatment.
“Do I know who to contact if I have a problem?”
“Has Harmony explained the procedure to me?”
“Has Harmony asked me what name I want to be called by?”
We can think of Ali’s experiences in different ways:
Firstly, what happens between Ali and Harmony when they are with each other? (for example when they communicate about something)
Secondly, what happens when Ali needs Harmony to explain how the system works (for example booking an appointment)
Thirdly, how Ali feels about what happens between him and Harmony.
For example: Did Ali feel treated with respect?
Click here to read or watch a video about Defining Patient Experience from The Beryl Institute
Click here to read ‘What We Need Now’ from National Voices
Click here to read the ‘I statements’ from Making It Real 2018
Section 6. Creating the best experience of care
We create the best experience for people receiving care when 3 things happen:
- We co-produce improvements in our integrated care system.
- We use insight and feedback from people’s experience of care and from colleagues.
- We put improving experience of care at the core of our priority work programmes.
Section 7. Co-producing improvements
Co-producing change is when:
Everyone involved in the system works together.
Everyone recognises each other as being equally valuable.
By everyone we mean the staff and people receiving care.
People receiving care includes people from across all communities.
This means we can learn from everyone’s experiences to:
- Connect with many different people and ideas.
- Be certain about what matters the most to people when we are improving things.
- That when we make changes that they will last.
Co-producing our improvement work means not just paying staff but also paying people receiving care to help us do this.
Click here to read about a co-production model from NHS England and Coalition for Personalised Care
Click here to find out more about Always Events®
Click here to read about Working in Partnership with People and Communities, NHS England
Section 8. Using insight and feedback
Using insight and feedback is about listening to people’s experience of care and to the views of the NHS staff who provide it.
Insight does not come from just one survey, patient story, focus group or public meeting.
It is about using lots of different ways to understand different issues and then to ask:
“How do we use what we have found out to improve the quality of every person’s experience?”
This is how we find out about how people feel about important things such as dignity and respect.
Some of the ways our integrated care system finds insight are:
All the time asking for feedback from:
- People who use our services
- Families and unpaid carers
- Other members of the public
Working together to:
- Design services
- Run services
- Review services
Using existing surveys like the Friends and Family Test.
Always involving people receiving care when deciding how to improve things.
Listening and responding to stories in meetings with managers.
Listening to people’s stories and experiences of care.
Click here to read Bite-size Guides to Patient Insight from NHS England
Click here to read Guidance on implementing the Friends and Family Test from NHS England
Section 9. Our priority work programmes
- System
- Improvement
- Transformation
- Priority
- Plans
- Quality
These are system words.
Each system word is about our agreement to improve the experience of care for people.
We want to explain in every system how we:
- Think about and respond to people’s experience of care
- Measure improvements in people’s experience of care.
- Tackle health inequalities
- Understand and improve staff experiences
- Connect staff experience at work with people’s experience of care
- Understand more about and support unpaid carers.
Unpaid carers help keep health and care services going.
Click here to read and watch a video about the NHS commitment to carers
Click here to watch a video about defining the patient experience
Click here to see a poster about reducing health inequalities
Click here to read about the Path to Experience Excellence from The Beryl Institute
Click here to read about the NHS Patient experience improvement framework
Click here to read about the links between NHS staff experience and patient satisfaction