The Model for Improvement has its origins in agriculture and industry, but its use in other sectors is becoming more widespread.  It is being used extensively in the health service and, as part of the CYPIC, which supports our improvement work from pre-birth, in early years and in early years settings and schools.  It works by asking three high level key questions:

• What are we trying to accomplish? (aim)
• How will we know that change is an improvement? (measurement)
• What change can we make that will result in improvement? (changes)

It then uses the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle to test the change ideas to see if they work the way we thought they would.  We also start very small, so if things don't work it is not a major issue.  As we gain confidence in our change, we 'scale up' or extend its use across our service. 

Quality Improvement (QI) advisers provide training and guidance on how to use QI methodology, as outlined in the three-step improvement framework for Scotland's Public Services.  QI is a way to test, measure, evaluate and implement new and more effective ways of working with the resources that teams have available.

Training in the Model of Improvement is run locally by the CYPIC Co-coordinator, Improvement Advisors and staff with experience in using the approach:

• Developing your ideas is a one day course which gives an introduction to the model and allows you to apply learning to your improvement idea.
• Focus on measurement builds on this course, and concentrates on how you know whether your change is leading to improvement. 
• Lanarkshire Practicum is a model for teams to follow through a piece of work over a 10 month period with 2 initial training days and three action sets.
• National practicums.
• Coaching and mentoring training.

We also provide coaching and mentoring to teams and/or individuals as well as opportunities for staff to share their experiences, learn from each other and receive training and support on different aspects of using the model. 

For more information contact the Community Planning Partnership at: contact@southlanarkshirecommunityplanning.org