RCPCH EQIP - Epilepsy Quality Improvement Programme

The RCPCH Epilepsy Quality Improvement Programme was officially launched in June 2019 as the first paediatric epilepsy QI collaborative in England and Wales, supporting epilepsy service teams to identify sustainable improvements within their services for children and young people with epilepsy.
Updates from 2022-23

Wave 3 training saw seven paediatric epilepsy teams and one ICS complete the EQIP that was co-designed and delivered with an expert QI trainer/facilitator, offering flexible distance learning that meets the pace of the team to support them to achieve their goals.

Access the event posters and presentations on their project interventions which covered a variety of QI topics that were showcased during their shared learning event on 9 June 2023, via our EQIP website.

What is RCPCH EQIP?

RCPCH EQIP | Epilepsy quality improvement programme

The RCPCH in collaboration with Epilepsy12 audit project team, the Organisation of Paediatric Epilepsy Networks in the UK (OPEN UK) and stakeholder Advisory groups developed a model for a comprehensive Quality Improvement (QI) programme. This is tailored to support paediatric epilepsy teams to work together to define their shared aims and develop practical interventions matching their capacity and resources.

The Epilepsy Quality Improvement Programme is an NHS England funded project and run by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health who also manages the national clinical audit Epilepsy12. Since then, we have successfully continued to train a further 40 paediatric epilepsy services, including integrated care systems (ICS).

Programme benefits

Each participating team:

  • completes a comprehensive, multi-skill development training programme, delivered free of charge by a professional team from the RCPCH
  • receives support in developing a transformative change for their team and care processes, towards lasting improvement
  • has an opportunity to work with other teams from across England and Wales, learning from their experiences
  • shares their improvement projects via the RCPCH QI Central website and other communication channels
  • receives a CPD certificate for all individual team members for every learning event attended.

How does it work?

Teams attended live training webinars, access to pre-course materials and recorded real-world training examples. Additional support was provided from one-hour monthly progress calls and 1:1 coaching meetings with QI.

Participation requires time and energy, which it is sometimes hard to find when stretched by the requirements of day-to-day service delivery. However, putting in that initial time often helps teams find ways to do things with less effort - yet more impact - later on.

What do we mean by a team?

We know that it can be a challenge to define and identify what an epilepsy team is, given the complexity of the care pathway across a healthcare setting. However, having a cohesive team has been consistently flagged as an important success factor, not just in epilepsy, but across many types of health services. Therefore, one of the key requirements of this programme of work was that participants attend as a whole team and learn together rather than attend as individuals.

For this reason, we ask that each service identify all staff members who regularly contribute to the delivery of their paediatric epilepsy service who were willing to commit to participating in all of the training events and that they undertake the improvement work together. It was really important that everyone is on board and fully committed – half-hearted participation would compromise the team’s chances of success!

Contact us

To access EQIP team QI case studies and registration details for the 2023-24 wave 4 training, visit the RCPCH EQIP microsite.