The Improvement Network, set up to assist public sector managers and practitioners with partnership working to help deliver better services for local people is being extended. As part of this the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has joined the Network, which already includes the Audit Commission, Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, the Improvement and Development Agency and the Leadership Centre for Local Government.

The Network is a website, which serves as a resource for those working in the public sector and which promotes its sponsors’ collective knowledge on key improvement issues. The Audit Commission said that expanding the partnership to include a health sponsor would help to build capacity for health sector professionals and as well as other public sector managers.

The expansion means that almost 7,000 people in the health service, the police and local government are now registered to the site’s Improvement Tools, which cover a range of management topics to develop employee skills. Gareth Davies, Managing Director for Local Government and Housing at the Audit Commission, said “The newly refreshed Improvement Network website has been refocused on improving outcomes in partnership, to reflect the Local Area Agreement and Comprehensive Area Assessment agenda.”

Professor Bernard Crump, the Chief executive of the NHS Institute would support the development of the Network’s cross-sector approach to improvement issues. “Meeting the challenge of delivering of world class healthcare will increasingly require excellence in partnership working. Through joining the Improvement Network, the NHS Institute can help promote the adoption of best practice, share examples of innovation and improvement, and develop management skill for the health workforce,” he added.

New users can register for free access to the site’s Improvement Tools at
www.improvementnetwork.gov.uk/register