The National Patient Safety Collaborative (PSC) Programme

The national Patient Safety Collaborative (PSC) programme is the largest safety initiative in the history of the NHS. It provides a national focus to support the system in making sure that patient safety is a priority, working to encourage a culture of safety, continuous learning and improvement.

The PSC programme addresses national priorities and local safety concerns, creating a national network to spread and accelerate patient safety improvement focusing on:

• Developing patient safety leadership
• Building capability for quality improvement
• Coaching teams through quality improvement projects
• Bringing people together to find solutions to patient safety concerns
• Building capability for measurement for improvement
• Facilitating the spread and adoption of good practice

The programme is delivered through 15 regional patient safety collaboratives covering every part of England and working across the health and care system, in hospitals and community settings, primary care and care homes.

• Supporting the adoption of evidence-based interventions
• Supporting teams to improve the reliability and quality of care
• Providing staff at all levels with the skills and confidence to deliver quality improvement initiatives
• Sharing and spreading good practice for national and local priorities

The PSC programme works across the country on a number of national workstreams:

• Creating the conditions to develop and nurture a culture of safety – raising awareness of safety culture and helping teams to create the conditions to develop and nurture a culture of safety by using tools and interventions such as safety culture surveys to focus and drive improvement work.
• Improving the detection and response to deterioration in patients – improving recognition, response and communication when a patient’s condition deteriorates, supporting the adoption of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) and other structured communication tools to ensure safety-critical information is understood by health professionals.
• Improving maternal and neonatal safety – supporting the national Maternal and Neonatal Health Safety Collaborative, working to improve the safety, outcomes and experience of women and babies using maternal and neonatal care in England.

The regional patient safety collaboratives provide quality improvement support and coaching for teams with trusts and across local maternity systems. The 15 regional patient safety collaboratives also address local health and care concerns, chosen with input from stakeholders including care providers, commissioners, clinicians, managers, patients, and carers. Topics reflect patient safety issues affecting the local population and healthcare system including:

• Healthy ageing
• Learning from Serious Incidents
• Safer surgery
• Medicines safety and optimisation
• Learning from deaths and mortality reviews

To find out more about what is happening in your region and to access our case studies, tools, and resources, get in touch with your regional patient safety collaborative:

• East Midlands
• Eastern
• Greater Manchester
• South London
• North West London
• Kent Surrey Sussex
• North East and North Cumbria
• North West Coast
• Oxford
• South West
• UCLPartners
• Wessex
• West Midlands
• West of England
• Yorkshire & Humber

Or contact the national PSC programme: www.improvement.nhs.uk or patientsafety.enquiries@nhs.net

The PSC is a joint initiative, funded and co-ordinated by NHS Improvement and delivered locally through 15 regional patient safety collaboratives, hosted by the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs).