FCA Connect Event Boosts its Improvement Community
Around 40 trained coaches and FCA friends old and new attended our ‘Connect’ event from across the UK and the overriding comment was that it felt like “coming home”.
The first in-person Connect since their training programme switched to virtual meetings and e-learning during the pandemic. The Connect brought together coaches who trained in person and those who have trained or are training virtually. The aim of the Connect was to provide an opportunity to refresh quality improvement skills, to network with a community of improvement enthusiasts who all believe in the power of improving with people first.
Over the past 3 years the FCA have been building their online community and continuing the important work they do via virtual e-Learning and online seminars using their hybrid course model.
Since the start of the FCA, shared goals and purpose has brought together over 400 Coaches from various improvement teams across the UK and Ireland. With the introduction of the online community, they have been able to spread those values without the restrictions of travel, time and other work commitments.
The day in more detail…
The day began with ‘Who’s in the room’ to kick start the networking, next a session to create space for coaches to share their experiences of being an FCA coach in 2022. There was lots of opportunity to network, to ask for support from faculty, improvement experts, and coaching peers, and to problem-solve and get excited about SPC charts, the COM-B model and much more.
The online community came to life at the event, everyone had fun incorporating online tools in the room like emoji cards, and elements of MS Teams meetings and took great joy in telling each other “You’re on mute!” even though they weren’t.
Coaches had the opportunity to revisit aspects of the course, including the concept of Relational Co-ordination and its fundamental role in the FCA Coaching and creating high-performing teams. Flow Coaches know that improvement in healthcare is 80% human.
The event featured Guest speaker Adam Smith, a data expert from NHSE as well as an FCA coach, who talked about an important part of improvement work “making data count”.
His session provided an introduction to NHS England’s Making Data Count approach which is aimed at using data for better decision-making. He discussed the pitfalls of traditional data analysis and visualisation techniques with a look at why time-series analysis is better.
Improvement clinics were provided to support coaches to pick the brains of some of our well-established members of the FCA community. “Meeting Stuart and Kevin really helped reflect on our big room and Trust position. Also, some specific advice regarding elective surgery made it a very productive time.”
The day ended with an FCA session evaluation. Here is some of the feedback:
“Excellent opportunity to network with like-minded individuals and find out how their journeys have evolved. Enjoyed pushing the boundaries and exploring areas for improvement.“
“The whole program was fantastic, especially as it was very interactive”
“Good to reconnect and hear where people are locally and in their Big Rooms.”
“Great networking opportunities, I have learnt a lot”
“The event had a family feel to it, nice, really cohesive”
“We want to acknowledge the capability in your team and how much knowledge you have and also that today was an opportunity to reflect on what we could go forward with”
“It was a great event and fantastic to be in the room together again. I learnt so much and made some great connections too. Loved all of it but a highlight was meeting Adam Smith from #plotthedots…and of course seeing Nick, Nicola and Kevin in real life after 18 months of on-screen meetings”
If you would like to know more about what the training programme involves visit our build improvement capability page. If you are interested in training coaches, becoming a flow coach, or finding out more please get in touch with our team by filling out the enquiry form. Alternatively, you can contact our team by emailing sth.fca@nhs.net.
