The National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes

The National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes support a culture of safety, continuous learning and sustainable improvement across the healthcare system. 

The Programmes are a key part of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy, and collectively form the largest safety initiative in the history of the NHS. 

The Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSCs) are key delivery partners of the national programmes. PSCs are hosted by Health Innovation Networks and have expertise in supporting safer care initiatives, working across organisational boundaries, coaching teams, building capability, measuring change and supporting improvement approaches. 

They do this by working across all health and care settings, such as maternity units, mental health trusts, care homes and Integrated Care Systems. 

At the heart of their work the PSCs support: 

• Safer systems of care that reflect continuous learning and improvement 
• The conditions for a culture of safety to flourish 
• Building a deeper understanding by learning from errors and excellence 
• The reduction of avoidable harm and variations in safe care delivery 
• Shared improvement learning for the benefit of others 
• Approaches that tackle inequalities in patient safety 
• Safety interventions that provide clear benefits to the workforce 

Key enablers for the National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes 

The delivery of the safety improvement programmes is shaped by the following key principles: 

• Addressing inequalities: understanding local health inequalities to ensure selected interventions improve the lives of those with the worst health outcomes. 
• Patient and carer co-design: employing a co-production approach with patients, carers and service users who represent the diversity of the population served. 
• Safety culture: using safety culture insights to inform quality improvement approaches. 
• Coordinating patient safety networks: providing the sub-regional delivery architecture for improvement. 
• Clinical leadership: identifying and nurturing clinical leadership to lead improvement through the networks 
• Building quality improvement capacity and capability: using the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI) model. 
• Measurement: developing a robust measurement plan using the IHI’s Model for Improvement. 
• Improvement and innovation pipeline: undertaking horizon-scanning and prioritisation to inform future national workstreams. 

Patient safety in the East of England

You can find out more about our work in each of the safety improvement programmes across the region below: