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Funding opportunity – Q Exchange

The next round of Q Exchange, the participatory funding programme with grants of up to £40,000 is now open for ideas.

What is the Q Exchange?

The Q Exchange is a collaborative funding programme, supported by the Health Foundation and NHS England. It offers Q members an opportunity to develop and submit their innovative ideas. Project teams must be led by a Q member for the duration of the project but can involve people who are not yet part of the community.

This year’s theme:

This year’s theme looks at how improvement can be used to reduce delays accessing health and care services and is focusing on one or more of the following areas:

  1. Redesigning care to best use the time and skills of those using and providing services.
  2. Understanding and improving how different parts of the system work together to meet patient/service user needs in accessing services.
  3. Improving the way waiting lists are prioritised and managed and supporting patients to wait better.
  4. Empowering and engaging the workforce to collaborate and use improvement methods in reducing waits.

Why should teams in Wales get involved?

This is a fantastic opportunity for teams in Wales to collaborate and share their skills with members of the Q Community to develop and test new or existing innovative ideas. Often successful projects will provide inspiration and learning that can be used in other situations. Andrew Ware, Senior Improvement Manager at Improvement Cymru was involved in a successfully funded project, Repeat Prescribing – re-design through co-design in 2018. Andrew said ‘“Without the Q Exchange, our project wouldn’t have happened. Through the process, we made some great contacts which connected to other pieces of work. Even years later we still get updates on the outcomes of this work and the legacy it has had to continually improve the situation.”

How to apply?

Explore and submit your ideas to the Q Exchange from Tuesday 14 February to Tuesday 7 March via Q’s website.

If you would like to find out more about the application process, we strongly recommend you join Q’s workshop, 'How to apply for Q Exchange' on Wednesday 22 February, 12.00-13.00.

If you would like to discuss your idea, get in touch with the Q Exchange team: Qexchange@health.org.uk.