The programme supports senior leaders across clinical and corporate functions to develop the confidence, practical skills and peer network needed to embed improvement into everyday work. Through action learning, participants explored how to lead change in real settings testing approaches, learning from experience, and building momentum behind their own improvement priorities.

Our NELFT CEO Paul Calaminus, praised the graduates’ commitment and highlighted Quality Improvement and continuous learning as the how in our strategy supporting the work underway across services.

Feedback from participants reflected the value of learning alongside colleagues, applying concepts in practice, and creating space to reflect on what effective improvement leadership looks like:

“Shifting focus on leading rather than doing. Good to think about the importance of engaging stakeholders and coproduction”

“Safe space to discuss reflections, ideas and how to lead in QI with realistic expectations”

“Enjoyed being with like-minded colleagues — sense of camaraderie”

“Thought‑provoking on quality of data and improving my understanding of concepts of data collection and reporting”

The graduation of Cohort 3 marks another step in strengthening NELFT’s culture of continuous improvement developing a community of senior leaders equipped to problem frame, support teams to learn and help services deliver safer, more reliable and kind care to the communities that we serve.