N-QI-CAN is a professional network of colleagues undertaking clinical audit and other improvement work across England and was founded in 2000 (under the name of National Audit Governance Group). We have 11 regional networks, covering over 500 organisations that provide care to patients across the NHS and hospices with over 1000 active members.
Our common purpose
To support our members to deliver high quality projects that help to improve patient care as part of local programmes.
To help achieve this, we have set out a plan that involves 5 key elements for us to lead and deliver on across our networks:
- sharing and adoption of best practice
- training and development of staff
- development of the national clinical audit (NCA) programme / policy
- alignment of the local clinical audit programmes with other Quality Improvement and Quality Assurance work.
- Championing Clinical Audit as Quality Improvement tool and be the voice of our profession
To help lead our networks and our work we have a national group which meets quarterly and we have 2 officers – a chair and general secretary that are elected every 2 years from our N-QI-CAN members. We also have a Communication Lead which is not an elected role. Officers and our Comms Lead have fulltime jobs with 2 or 3 days a month protected time to undertake their relevant N-QI-CAN duties. Our officers are supported by our 11 regional network chairs and their members who are all independent with their own governance arrangements. In addition to this and our website – we also have a networking and sharing forum (NNSF), twitter account (@nqican), YouTube channel and infographics space.
We are able to claim for reimbursement from NHS England (NHSE) for time with annual funds available for re-imbursements (approx. £30k) and we have our own governance documents.
During the last 20 years QI has grown and grown across the NHS and there are now lots of other similar networks / groups and organisations across the country (Q network, HQIP etc.) and beyond (IHI). Part of our forward plan is to work together with these bodies so that we remain relevant and learn, share and maximise our resources for the benefit of our members and patients.
If you would like to find out more about our networks or get involved please contact us on nqi.can1@nhs.net
Quick links:
Regional Networks pages: https://nqican.org.uk/regional-networks/
N-QI-CAN Networking & Sharing Forum (NNSF): http://forum.nqican.org.uk