Q at NHS ConfedExpo 2026

Wednesday 10 June · 09:30 – 10:30, Exchange 2

There’s good evidence of the value of peer learning and collaboration to enable ideas and culture to shift, and to create change in complex systems. But what does it take to do this well?

This in-situ peer networking session will help make the most of the power of peers in organisations or systems. Join to identify opportunities to strengthen peer learning networks, connect with peers to share learning about what is working well, and leave with practical insights and connections to use straight away.

Speakers

• Professor Andy Hardy, Chief Executive Officer, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust
• Zarah Mowhabuth, Improvement Manager, The NHS Alliance
• Penny Pereira, Q Managing Director, The NHS Alliance

Format

This is a networking-style session. 

Wednesday 10 June, 15.00–16.00, Exchange 11 

Neighbourhood health is not just a structural reorganisation, it is a relationship shift that depends on deeper collaboration between system partners including VCFSE, local government and communities themselves. There is growing recognition that health and care is shaped by relationships, trust, and local insight and that sustainable change needs shared ownership for outcomes at neighbourhood level. 
 
Delivering cancer care closer to home also needs a redefinition of roles across the system. Macmillan will share their systemic approach to shifting care closer to home for people living with cancer. Their Lab approach, which is being co-designed and delivered with the Q community, will share a compelling vision for revolutionising cancer care. This includes working at multiple levels, building on existing assets, addressing power imbalances, and applying a strong equity lens to neighbourhood-led health for people living with cancer in marginalised communities. 

The case study will provide the inspiration on creating the conditions and culture needed to embed neighbourhood-led health approaches shaped by the communities it serves. 

Speakers 

• Anindita Ghosh, Innovation and Development Lead, Q, the NHS Alliance
• Emma Tingley, Head of Systems Interventions, Macmillan

Format

This is an interactive session.

Thursday 11 June, 09.00 –10.00, Exchange 10

The skills required for effective collaboration are wide-reaching and require attention and practice. Q worked in partnership with Nesta to develop a skills map and user guide outlining the skills and attitudes needed for collaborative and creative problem-solving. 

Join us for a practical, energising session exploring the skills that make collaboration work. We’ll introduce the skills map, support you to reflect on your own strengths, and share ways to assess and build these capabilities across your team. You will leave with practical tools and activities to better understand the skills for effective collaborative improvement. 

Speakers 

• Libby Keck – Head of Design and Collaboration / Labs Network, Q, the NHS Alliance

Format

This is an interactive session.

Thursday 11 June, 10.30 – 11.30, Exchange 1

A relational approach to services is an approach to designing and running services that puts relationships at the centre, particularly for people with complex or intersecting needs. 

There’s a growing cross-sector consensus that a relational approach to services has a role to play in fixing public services and shifting care closer to home. 

The need for them has been shown through the increasing costs of ​‘failure demand’ (needs arising from failing to do something right by the patient first time). The most recent estimate is that £37 billion would be saved across the UK by spreading relational services that already exist. 

Relational approaches to services has the potential to radically shift the culture of the health and care system to deliver high impact and sustained change. 

• The 10-Year Health Plan and the National Neighbourhood Implementation Programme point to the relational agenda. Both plans give geographies the flexibility to integrate services around people and give patients a seamless experience. 
• The Kings Fund and The Health Foundation recent and upcoming evidence for a relational approach. 

This session will inspire practitioners and leaders who are using or, are interested in using, a relational approach to services, to connect and build their learning and networks. We’ll hear from two speakers on the principles and practice for relational services. 

Speakers 

• Meadhbha Monahan, Chief Executive, Patient and Client Council 
• Catherine Harrison, Independent Policy Consultant, commissioned by the Health Foundation 
• Matthew Mezey, Community Manager, Q, the NHS Alliance (Host) 

Format

This is a networking-style session. 

Thursday 11 June, 13.00–13.40, Charter 1 

While innovation often gets the spotlight, adoption is where impact truly happens. 

Most people in health care aren’t inventing new solutions – they are adopting those developed elsewhere. Despite many initiatives being successful in one context, spreading them to another rarely leads to comparable outcomes. Adopters – who implement an intervention in a different setting than the one in which it was originally developed – face complex challenges: adapting to local context, engaging stakeholders, resistance to change among staff and patients, and sustaining the change over time. 

Successful adoption requires many of the same skills and support as innovation – yet rarely receives the attention and resources it needs. 

This session will start with key insight from Q’s research and learning from the improvement community, followed by examples and learning from speakers from across the health care sectors. 

We’ll explore what it takes to do adoption well: how adopters can navigate barriers, build capability and create conditions for success. We also will show how leaders can create conditions to make best use of resources and support adoption to be effective. 

Speakers 

• Penny Pereira, Managing Director, Q, the NHS Alliance (Chair)
• Tim Horton, Assistant Director (Insight & Analysis), the Health Foundation 
• Alka Ahuja, Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist and Vice President, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board 

Format

This is an interactive session.

Thursday 11 June, 13.30–14.30, Exchange 2

Delivering sustained performance improvement needs to be core business for every organisation and system in the health sector. Yet we all too often struggle to make best use of the ideas and expertise that exists in the workforce and deliver our change goals. 

This session will explore how members have tackled improvement at scale, sharing practical insights and real-world examples. Delegates will get the opportunity to dip into a range of inspiring examples and approaches to understand how improvement can be enabled across systems. 

Case studies will highlight resources openly available within the NHS and include: 

• Cross system improvement – practical tools and frameworks to help you navigate the complexities of cross-system working and build the conditions for change. 
• Collaborative quality improvement skills building – equipping staff to enable change with a focus on working across boundaries and within complex systems. 
• Working across the interface – delivering improvement that spans primary and secondary care, improving relationships and outcomes. 
• Accelerated problem solving – using design, systems, and improvement methods to understand and address complex challenges such as improving patient flow

Speakers 

• Emily Case, Lead for Continuous Improvement, London North West University Healthcare 
• Mani Dhesi, Transformation Director, SDSmyhealthcare 
• Sonia Nosheen, Assistant Director – Acute Network, the NHS Alliance

Thursday 11 June, 14.00–14.40, Improvement Learning Theatre

The Quality Strategy aims to set out an ambitious vision for improving care and outcomes across the health system. Quality is a shared responsibility of all parts of the system, aligning with the NHS 10 Year Health Plan and building on the lessons from recent reviews and inquiries. 

This session will provide a taste of what to expect in the upcoming strategy and start to explore how it can be meaningfully implemented in practice.

We will begin with insights from the NHS England representative, outlining the strategy’s priorities and plans for delivery. This will be followed by a panel discussion featuring provider and patient perspectives – highlighting what successful implementation looks like in practice and the critical factors that will enable its success. We will consider how approaches to implementation of the strategy and quality management may differ across settings, from primary care to acute providers. 

Together, we will identify practical steps and collaborative approaches to ensure that the strategy delivers on its promise of better-quality care for all. 

Speakers 

• Penny Pereira, Q Managing Director, The NHS Alliance
• Douglas Findley, Patient Safety Partner and Lead Public Contributor at Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre, NHS England (SE and W Midland Regions and Oxford Health NHS FT) 
• Dr Parya Rostami, Head of Quality Improvement, Sheffield Health Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust 
• Prof Stella Vig, Deputy National Medical Director for Secondary Care and Quality, NHS England