Academy Summer School

The Academy Summer Series is back.

The West of England Academy is hosting a series of four highly practical online workshops from July to September, designed to help you build confidence and capability in Quality Improvement (QI).

Every session is interactive, with practical tools you can apply immediately in your role, whether or not you are currently working on a formal QI project.

Each workshop is 90 minutes, free to attend, and fully standalone. You can choose to attend a single session or sign up for the full series.

Workshop dates, times and topics

Generating Ideas for Change
Learn practical creative problem‑solving tools to generate, refine and select ideas to test for improvement.
• Wednesday 8 July, 2:00pm to 3:30pm
• Thursday 23 July, 10:00am to 11:30am

Overcoming Obstacles for Change
Understand why change can be difficult and explore practical ways to overcome resistance, behavioural barriers and stalled progress.
• Wednesday 29 July, 2:00pm to 3:30pm
• Thursday 6 August, 10:00am to 11:30am

Getting the Word Out
Build a clear and effective communication plan to share your improvement work, engage stakeholders, and spread learning.
• Wednesday 12 August, 2:00pm to 3:30pm
• Thursday 20 August, 10:00am to 11:30am

Measuring Your Impact
Develop confidence in measuring what matters, using data to understand progress and demonstrate impact in improvement work.
• Wednesday 26 August, 2:00pm to 3:30pm
• Thursday 3 September, 10:00am to 11:30am

Please select which dates you would like to attend when booking and a calendar invite will be sent through to you. 

Who can apply?

The Academy is for people working in health and social care, including NHS colleagues, voluntary and community sector teams, and innovators in the health-tech space living, working or planning to work in the West of England.  

If you would like to talk to us about whether this is the right course for you, please do get in touch with healthinnowest.academy@nhs.net

Creating a welcoming and inclusive space

We aim to eliminate any disadvantage based on age, disability, marriage or civil partnership, race, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, maternity or any other characteristics. We want to create a welcoming space for everyone. Need anything adjusted so you can fully take part in our event? Please don't hesitate to contact us at healthinnowest.academy@nhs.net. We're here to help and make your experience as comfortable as possible. We're always open to feedback about how inclusive our events are, and promise to handle your thoughts with the utmost respect and dignity.

Can't attend? Please let us know

All Academy events are free to attend, unless otherwise stated. Please note that places are limited and in all cases will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Your booking onto an event constitutes a binding agreement. Please note that for any events, booked delegate places where there is non-attendance on the day without prior notification, may incur a cancellation fee to cover venue/catering costs.

If you cannot attend an event, please cancel your booking via the event website or email us directly at healthinnowest.academy@nhs.net at your earliest convenience to ensure your place can be taken up by somebody else.

About the West of England Academy

The West of England Academy provides a range of free resources to help you gain knowledge and develop essential skills for innovative thinking and working.We promote the use of quality improvement methodologies to support delivery of better patient care.

The Academy is for all health and care professionals, front line, support services, voluntary sector and commissioners, plus innovators living, working or planning to work in the West of England. Explore our free online resources on our Academy website www.healthinnowest.net/academy 

Find out more about the Academy in our short video series.

Subscribe to our podcast series QualiTea. Each episode is a short, informal chat between Sarah and Becca, focusing on one simple improvement tool. They'll use relatable examples and talk about how you might actually use it in your day-to-day work to help you think a bit differently about a problem. Not in theory, in real life. healthinnowest.net/news-views/podcast-west-side-stories/

We encourage you to share your learning with colleagues and via social media. You can find us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/healthinnowest/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/healthinnowest/

Stay connected with upcoming events and opportunities by signing up for our newsletter www.healthinnowest.net/newsletter