Roles and responsibilities

To support partnership-working at regional level, Regional Quality Improvement Partnerships (RQIPs) have already been established. The RQIPs have a strong role to play in championing and supporting the implementation of the Improvement Strategy at regional level. To underpin this work, each RQIP had been asked to develop a regional improvement framework by May 2007 that provides a structure to identify regional improvement priorities - including those derived from the national Improvement Strategy - and shows how colleges and providers, and partner organisations, can work together within the region to meet them.

A national improvement partnership

The development of the Improvement Strategy has been supported by the work of an Advisory Task Group comprising representatives of the national partners and colleges and providers. This group has been invaluable in ensuring that there is coherence and synergy between the actions of each of the national partners. It is planned to extend the remit of this group and establish a national Improvement Partnership Board by 1 March 2007 to:

• monitor and review the implementation of the Improvement Strategy and progress against the indicators set out in the Improvement Strategy balanced scorecard
• provide a means of gathering first-hand feedback on the effectiveness of the national partners' support to providers on quality improvement
• further develop joint strategies to address emerging issues - for example on the recommendations in the Leitch review and on provision for young people leaving care
• share research findings and evidence of what works
• provide a mechanism for the flow of intelligence between RQIPs and national partners on improvement needs and priorities