About Nick
Nick Downham – organisational development (od) and improvement consultancy, specialising in health and social care improvement.
I provide support and expertise for teams, organisations and systems. I help not only make things better, but also help organisations do better things. You can find out about who and how I have helped here. I offer a powerful mix of exemplary interpersonal skills, core social values, engineering experience, NHS experience and deep improvement knowledge.
I take great pride in helping improve our great public services because of the role they play in supporting and caring for people when they are at their most vulnerable. I have worked with general practices, acute trusts, mental health providers, CCGs, hospice groups, local authorities, thought leaders and universities and with professionals at all levels.
You can also find out more about me on my linked in page.
Finally, I have documented a number of useful insights into improvement here.
Areas of expertise
Offered through consulting, coaching, workshops, training or bespoke publications:
Large scale improvement programmes
Learning capture
Process improvement
Measurement for improvement
Flow
Leadership development programmes
Community of practice
Quality improvement
Failure demand
Theory of Change
Organisational development
Learning events and workshops
Lean thinking
Demand and capacity
Bespoke improvement publications
My book:
Improving Quality in Healthcare
The book is for anyone who is interested in improving quality in healthcare. It will appeal to all those who have the appetite to go beyond traditional quality improvement boundaries and challenge the root causes of our systemic struggles with demand, access, effectiveness, experience and safety. It will appeal to those who are traditionally responsible for quality and productivity matters, as well as practicing clinicians, leaders, trainers and academics.
My Work
Examples of my work:
Improving Access Facilitator Guide
Concept development and authoring of a guide for improvement coaches who are seeking to improve access.Keynote Speeches for a Large Healthcare Conference
Keynote slots on Tackling the Demands we Face and The Fundamentals of Networks and INTs.Developing a Multi-Morbidity Approach to Care – Self Assessment and Planning Tool for a large ICB
Development of a theory of change and practice support tools for helping moving practices to a Multi-Morbidity Approach to Care.Diabetes Three Treatment Targets – Large Scale Improvement
Design of a large scale improvement programme for the increased quality if care for people with Type Two Diabetes.
Lean and QI Training for Health and Social Care
Delivered face to face or online
In addition to consulting and programme design assignments, I design and deliver bespoke Lean and QI masterclass courses.
These courses are completely customised for each client to reflect their work and challenges – see my blog on the limitations of standardised Lean / QI competency frameworks.
Clients include:
Central improvement organisations
Mental health trusts
District general hospitals
Foundation trusts
Teaching hospitals
General practices
CCGs
Primary care networks
Pharmaceutical companies
Improvement Insights
Supporting Robust General Practice: Cardio-Metabolic Multi-Morbidity Care
This article presents the case for integrated multi-morbidity for cardio-metabolic conditions. Showing the common care process steps that can be integrated together.
Sources of Failure Demand in Healthcare
This article gives a short introduction to failure demand and the sources of it in healthcare.
Innovation in primary care and primary care networks – supporting discussions on new models of care
This article illustrates unique, simplified methods to segment and understand the demands placed on primary care. To help make decisions on new models of care, without taking too narrow a view on need and drowning in the detail.