In this section...

  1. How we make decisions
  2. Our priorities
  3. Policies and procedures
  4. What we spend and how we spend it
  5. Who we are and what we do
  6. Work for us
Members of our Research Team

Culture of continuous learning, improvement, research and innovation

Healthcare organisations that achieve the best standards do this through a dedicated attention to the culture of clinical care. At the Trust, we will build a powerful culture focused on learning: when things go well, and when they do not. Because learning has no impact when it is not followed by change, we will have a rigorous approach to the continuous quality improvement of our care. We will build a culture that nurtures innovation and prioritise research across our corporate and clinical services.

When any one of us sees something that we know we can do better, our colleagues and our processes will make it easier for us to adapt and to test. By building a training and support programme for quality improvement and research methods, we will be able to develop our own skills and we will be surrounded by colleagues with the same skills and ambitions. We will celebrate when our innovations are successful and share what we learn across the Trust. The development and reporting of high-quality performance and outcome data will help us to know where we are making a difference and where we must focus our energy.

How we will do this

Develop a comprehensive quality improvement training programme

Training will be available to corporate and clinical teams and provide consistent, expert support to celebrate quality improvement and build a culture of continuous improvement across all teams in the Trust.

Invest in the development and infrastructure of our Research Team and clinical school

We will continue to develop our regional research partnerships with particular focus on areas of excellence, such Cornwall Intellectual Disability Equitable Research (CIDER).

Foster and support a learning culture

We will continue to learn from deaths, through the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework approach and use this to save the living. Also through learning from incidents and through celebrating and sharing when things have gone well.

How will we know we have achieved this?

We will know we have achieved this when:

  • we have a dedicated Quality Improvement Team and all staff are able to describe the fundamentals of our quality improvement approach
  • 30% of our staff participate in research through their clinical work and we offer participation in research studies to at least 30% of the people we treat
  • 90% of incident review processes are completed on time and learning from all experiences is shared through a diverse and accessible range of reports and showcases out to frontline teams

Linked Care Quality Commission statements

  • Learning culture.
  • Learning, improvement and innovation.
Large screens in the background showing a ‘fishbone exercise’ with a table of people in the foreground, overseen by a training facilitator.
A training facilitator pointing and talking about the sticky notes placed on a flipchart paper, watched by a group of people sat around a table.
3 people sat around a table watching a coin spin in the middle of the table, with 2 different size and colour coins also on the table. The group are overseen by a training facilitator in the background.

Introduction to quality improvement training

On 25 February 2026, we held our first introduction to quality improvement training.

This full day session offered colleagues:

  • an engaging overview of key quality improvement tools
  • the model for improvement
  • what the improvement journey looks like within the Trust
  • the vital role of patient participation

The training forms part of our commitment to strengthening quality improvement capability and capacity across the Trust, supporting teams to make meaningful, sustainable improvements in care.