Foundation Trusts are keen to play their role as major providers of health care - but all recognise that the agenda is challenging and there is a long way to go to bring about improvements that all stakeholders want to see.
In today’s world, the impact that FTs have on their local economies and communities as well on patients and their families is substantial. FTs are leading the way both in terms of providing the highest quality of care as well as now moving towards a holistic understanding of what makes a quality organisation.
The FTN has a number of streams of work on quality. Our current priority is on assisting FTs in the development of Quality Accounts.
For FTs, Quality Accounts, as well as being a means of demonstrating public accountability on the quality of services, are a key driver for quality improvement. Whilst there will be national demands for benchmarkable information across foundation trusts, the key to making the accounts work is engaging local stakeholders in a dialogue to determine local improvement priorities and measuring and reporting on what matters most to them.
Drawing on work in progress within member organisations and working in partnership with Tomorrow’s Company to access learning and best practice from the world of business and commerce, the FTN has produced a guide for foundation trusts on developing Quality Accounts - ‘Making the Most of Quality Accounts’
It aims to help members think through the processes required for good stakeholder engagement, embedding a responsive quality approach and producing meaningful Quality Accounts which address the interests of all stakeholders.
The FTN has held a series of workshops on Quality Accounts.
The Foundation Trust Network will be holding a quality conference in London on 24 February 2010 from 13:00 until 17:00 at The Honourable Artillery Company, London. Further details of the event, venue and programme are available on this site.
Quality Reports
All foundation trust were required to produce Quality Reports earlier this year and publish them as part of their Annual Report and Accounts 2008/09. Foundation trusts were required to identify their priorities for improvement and what indicators they would be using to measure their performance.
Quality Reports can be found in trust Annual Report and Accounts 2008/09 in the Foundation Trust Directory on the Monitor website.