The Leadership for Quality Improvement Programme (LQuIP) enables participants to learn the skills to lead change and improvement in and across public services in their local context.

The 12-month programme equips participants with a range of leadership, improvement science and improvement system skills and introduces them to leading thinkers and policy-makers in organisational design and behaviour. Key national and international speakers deliver aspects of the programme.

The course is delivered by the Improvement Foundation working in partnership with Karen Picking Associates, a company at the forefront of leadership development in the UK, and the University of Teesside, who provide optional academic accreditation at post graduate level. The latest LQuIP course started in March 2008 and will run until April 2009.

For details of the 2009/10 programme, Leadership for Clinical Service Improvement, aimed specifically at leading improvement of clinical services, please click here.

Who is it aimed at?

Not simply a leadership programme for senior executives - this course is aimed at people working at the front-line of public services, directly with service users and so we encourage applications from a range of backgrounds including health, local government and voluntary services. Participants are people who are well placed to take forward ideas, engage and motivate others and enable actions that really make a difference in their own organisations for local communities.

How is the programme delivered?

Throughout the programme we explore the concept of leadership and how to develop effective leadership in order to improve the quality of services. We consider successful leadership styles and approaches and how to adapt these appropriately in different situations. In particular we explore the behaviours require by leaders for successfully establishing implementing and implementing vision and engaging others to achieve results. A critical element is leadership within and across multi-professional and multi-agency teams.

The programme consists of six national master-classes interspersed with local Support and Development Groups which take place around the country in groups of about 10-12 people. Additionally there is personal coaching and individual feedback which will also take place locally.

We ask all participants to apply the learning from the programme to a work-based improvement activity which is implemented during the programme and then written up (this will also form part of the final accreditation assessment) and shared with other participants.

Key results

Past participants have fed back significant individual and organisational impact as a result of attending the programme, with enhanced skills and leadership traits. The following data demonstrates the percentage of participants who felt that participation on the programme had positively increased the particular competency area:

We also facilitate the sharing of improvement activities that participants have undertaken during the programme. Some participants can demonstrate immediate impact although it is recognised that many take on longer-term challenges that are ongoing.

What do the programme participants have to say?

"The programme was invaluable in giving me the strategic and management overview you can't get as a GP within daily life. During the programme I became a PEC chair and without it would have found the transition from PEC member to chair of a failing organisation much more difficult."
GP

"The skills, knowledge and confidence I gained on the leadership programme have been used to great effect within the practice and beyond. I have recently been elected by my peers to sit on the management board of our newly established general practice-led consortium which represents 33 practices and over 200,000 patients."
Practice Manager

If you are interested in working with the Improvement Foundation please go to How we can help or click here to contact us.