RCPCH Programmes
Welcome to the Programmes section on QI Central. Here you will find information about the QI Collaboratives run by the RCPCH, and teams within RCPCH serving to improve quality and safety. We work with over 150 paediatric multi-disciplinary teams in England and Wales to improve care, outcomes and the quality of life for children and young people, and their families.
Medication errors are a significant but preventable cause of harm to children and young people. MedsIQ was an RCPCH programme with a vision to bring together tools and improvement projects focused on medicines safety to support child health professionals in their own improvement work and learn from the experiences of others. MedsIQ also brought together case examples of good practice from organisations across the UK and beyond to ensure that medication safety remained a priority for paediatric research and practice.
See the Medicines page MedsIQ – QI Central
Medicines for Children aims to provide practical, reliable and accessible information to parents, carers, and older children about medicines prescribed to children.
We aim for parents and carers to feel more informed, confident and competent about giving a medicine to their child; and for relevant stakeholders to be aware of and have access the resource regularly as part of their communication with patients and their families.
See our full page here Medicines for Children – QI Central
Explore patient safety theory, learn about the NHS patient safety syllabus, share ideas for quality improvement and access summaries of the latest alerts and reports. Use what you learn to drive improvements in paediatric patient safety.
RCPCH Patient Safety Portal – One-stop shop for all things related to paediatric patient safety
PEWS is designed to effectively recognise and respond to the deterioration of children or young people in a healthcare environment. Typically, it involves an observation chart and track and trigger system, which captures vital signs (heart rate, etc.) or observations (eg work of breathing) to give a total score describing the acuity of the patient and then links the score to specific escalation responses.
It also aims to ensure that in any given clinical environment attention is paid to improving human factor processes of recognition and response. These would include, but aren’t limited to, aspects of communication, visual display, team working, organizational response, etc.
Find out more information here UK Paediatric Early Warning Systems (PEWS) | RCPCH
Invited reviews are there when you need independent, objective expert advice and external assurance on your clinical services and quality of care. They are a safe space for active listening, and we encourage and support all relevant staff to bring their perspective. The service gives healthcare organisations an opportunity to adopt a proactive approach in seeking assurances on the care for infants, children and young people. Working with a team of independent, expert peer reviewers, organisations can address areas of concern and identify scope for quality improvement.
Find out more here Invited Review Service | RCPCH
The Hub is a place to find resources and activities to support you through your own leadership journey of discovery and application.
In addition to RCPCH resources, we have included a number of external organisation courses and activities that you may wish to research for relevance to your own professional development pathway. All listed external activities are recommended by us as possible educational activities of note but please do conduct your own assessment of relevance and value to your personal learning needs.
Find the Leadership Hub here RCPCH Leadership Hub – RCPCH Learning