Working together to prevent infection

We are excited to announce our new strategy - Working together to prevent infection.  Between now and Conference we will be updating the IPS website, social media platforms and documentation, and at Conference we will formally launch our new strategy.

The Board of Trustees and MEG began developing the 2024-2027 organisational strategy at an away-day in July 2023, and held meetings, workshops, surveys and focus groups with Branch, SIG and Business Group officers and members during September 2023 – June 2024.

Our new strategy exists as a one-page summary (outlining the over-arching goals and pillars) and a more detailed version which outlines the activities planned to deliver each of the goals.  Detailed plans to deliver the activities are also underway.

Our four over-arching goals
Our four goals will be at the heart of all of our activities and summarise what we intend to achieve during 2024-2027:

Support: Support our members to deliver the highest quality and safest care

Improve: Improve evidence-based IPC practice, surveillance and care in all health and care settings

Engage: Ensure equity of access and support for a diverse and multidisciplinary workforce in all health and care settings

Impact: Influence and shape IPC education and policy

Our timeline
By 2025 we will have a new website and new membership database, and we will provide more support for our Branches and Special Interest Groups.  By 2026 we will have grown our membership and  refreshed and reinvigorated our programme of educational events and resources, all of which will have been shaped by our members.

As part of the strategy development process, we have committed to develop and embed our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion strategy to help us achieve our goals. Over the next year our Chief Executive Officer and Lorraine Williams (current IPS Vice-President) will work together with the Board of Trustees and our members to develop this strategy.  As an organisation we want to be sure the IPS is a welcoming and safe space for all people committed to best practice and excellent care in the field of infection prevention and control.  By 2027 we will have diversified our income streams and ensured the financial sustainability of the IPS. To help us achieve this, on 1 August 2024 we start to welcome our first staff team who will work together with our members, volunteers, corporate supporters, and policy makers to begin to deliver our strategic priorities.

Each of our new staff members are experienced and are excited by the challenge that lies ahead. We will support our staff team to develop and grow, and we will treat them with respect and care.

Our strategic priorities
The activities that we will deliver to achieve our goals are listed below

Running through all of our activities will be the following pillars intended to highlight the principles and practices that will underpin all of our activities to achieve our goals.

Pillar 1: Include our members, health and care communities, policy makers and people receiving care by:

• ensuring the IPS is a trusted source of IPC information
• developing our equality, diversity and inclusion strategy to aim to reach and welcome all of our members across all of our activities
• ensuring we consult with people with lived experience of the impact of preventable infections

Pillar 2: We will make progress by ensuring:

• our activities are well researched, planned and resourced
• our Branches, SIGs and business groups have the support they need to succeed
• we are clinically led, and professionally managed

Pillar 3: We will ensure we sustain:

• our commitment to reducing the environmental impact of our activities, and of IPC practice
• the IPC workforce by understanding and responding to the pressures they are facing
• our organisation by being well-governed and run, valuing our members and volunteers, and developing our income streams

It is our intention that this new strategy will help us to both support and grow a diverse membership of healthcare professionals to help us achieve our vision – a world where no person is harmed by a preventable infection. The IPS cannot achieve this vision on its own and this fact is embedded in our new mission:

Our mission is to collaborate with, educate and bring together health and care communities and policy makers to positively influence and improve evidence-based IPC practice, for the benefit of all.

Our evolution
Our new strategy marks a significant stage in the evolution of the IPS.  We are proud of what we have achieved over the past 54 years as a result of the unwavering commitment of 1,000s of volunteers.

We are proud our new strategy because it has been developed as a result of a year-long research, development and consultation process with almost 500 of our members – all of whom want to positively influence and improve evidence-based IPC practice, for the benefit of all.

Our new strategy Working together to prevent infection truly represents who we are as an organisation. It represents our ambitions to work together in all health and care settings and showcases that we are supportive of, and accessible to, a diverse and multidisciplinary workforce in all health and care settings. Our strategy also showcases that we are committed to improving evidence-based IPC practice, surveillance and care and it showcases that we are determined to influence IPC education and policy. 

There are many changes planned, but we will stay true to our values and ensure that:

• We are clinically led and professionally managed
• We are responsive to the challenges our members are facing
• We run activities that are inclusive and accessible
• We consider the environmental impact of our own activities, and of IPC practice nationally
• We work to positively impact evidence-based infection prevention policy and practice

“I am thrilled we have reached this momentous point in the IPS journey,” said IPS President, Lisa Butcher. “It is both exciting but also rather daunting. I believe we are about to enter a period of opportunity and development whilst remaining clinically led but with the support of being professionally managed.  I am hugely grateful for all those who have helped us reach this milestone, which includes all of you as members, our Past Presidents and Kay Miller, our interim Managing Director. I look forward with anticipation to working with our new staff team and seeing what the future brings to the IPS.”

Prof. Steve Hams, IPS Chair of Trustees, said “This is an important step in our development as a Society, it clearly sets our ambition for the next three years, this is a truly exciting time for our members and the profession.  The Board of Trustees and I look forward to working with our members, colleagues and other organisations to deliver our strategy and further our charitable aims”.

IPS Financial Strategy

This document will set out the Society’s Financial Strategy for 2024 to 2027. Following the launch of our strategic plan for 2024 - 2024 our Financial Strategy is now under review and will be published once finalised.