Diabetes QI Collaborative Podcast Series

There has been an incremental year-on-year improvement in paediatric diabetes outcomes in England and Wales since 2009. This can be traced to a co-ordinated national programme of support for the 173 multi-disciplinary teams that care for 29,153 children and young people with diabetes and their families.

The National Children and Young People’s Diabetes Quality Programme (NDQP) is an ambitious structure of quality assurance and quality improvement delivery that builds on the foundations of a robust national paediatric diabetes audit and network. Involving over 90% of paediatric diabetes units in England and Wales over 3 years, the Programme aims to drive sustainable improvements in services on a national scale. Established in 2018, it closes the audit loop and provides teams with the support and tools to identify, design and analyse their own interventions specific to the needs of the children and young people and their families they care for.

Outcomes from 10 teams who participated in a pilot QI collaborative in 2017 had shown a transformational change to their teams and units. Run-chart data collected by these teams demonstrated an accelerated decrease in median HbA1c levels over the course of the collaborative, with most reporting up to 10% of improvement within one year. This rate of improvement has since been reflected in subsequent waves of the collaborative, which now involves over 80 teams and over 1,000 healthcare professionals nationwide.

2 years in to this national programme, it has demonstrated an accelerated improvement in national outcomes with a reduction in median HbA1c of over 2mmol/mol in 12 months. Through the spread of QI initiatives, an enthusiasm for improvement and a desire to share with others, this national framework is forming a new culture of continuous improvement.

The NDQP have produced a podcast series with the aim to provide information and inspiration on all aspects of quality improvement in children and young people’s diabetes services. These are now available to stream or download from a range of podcast platforms or listen below:

Episode 1 – Our QI Collaborative Journey, with Sheffield Children’s Hospital

In our first episode, consultant paediatrician Dr Carrie Mackenzie reflects on her team’s journey throughout the QI Collaborative programme and offers recommendations to teams wishing to embark on quality improvement projects of their own.

Episode 2 – Reflections from QI Champions

Dr Dita Aswani, Dr Carrie Mackenzie and Dr Fiona Campbell talk with Dr Megan Peng and Dr Tricia Woodhead about their team’s involvement in the early waves of the QI Collaborative.

Episode 3 – Developing a transition service

We speak with the team at Warrington and Halton NHS Trust on how they have developed their transition service through applying quality improvement (QI) methods, engaging with children and young people and gaining feedback from parents and carers.

Episode 4 – Patient advocacy and transition

We speak to Jo Kitchen and Amanda Grayson, Patient Advocates at the Calderdale and Huddersfield Trust, about their unique role in supporting young people with diabetes, and their Quality Improvement project on transition.

Episode 5 – Improving clinic experience

We speak to Liz Baker (Consultant Paediatrician) and Jo Ellis (Paediatric Diabetes Specialist Nurse) from York Teaching Hospitals about their QI project aimed at improving the clinic experience for patients, and talk about their experience of taking part in the QI Collaborative.

Episode 6 – Improving time in range

We speak to Dr Chizo Agwu (Clinical Lead), Dr Charlotte Avann (Consultant Paediatrician) and Lizbeth Hudson (Paediatric Diabetes Specialist Nurse) from the Sandwell and West Birmingham Team about their QI project aimed at improving time in range.