The NHS Patient Safety Strategy

NHS England and NHS Improvement · work from 2018 · published 2019

What this was

National strategy organised around insight, involvement and improvement. It set the direction for a new incident-reporting system and, later, the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework.

Why it sits in the hub

It is the policy layer between Francis and the later inquiries. Dash found in 2025 that the safety architecture had grown crowded, and that activity was not the same as safer outcomes.

Findings

Finding 1
The NHS did not yet have a single way to turn incident data, patient insight and improvement into fewer deaths.
Data and early warning Learning from harm Listening to patients and families

Recommendations in this hub

Paraphrase of the public recommendations, not the official text.

1AcceptedNHS providers
Replace the old serious-incident process with a response framework based on learning.
PSIRF has been introduced. Nottingham's review still asked for it to be funded and used properly.
Learning from harm
2Partly doneNHS providers
Involve patients and staff in safety work as a condition of the system, not an extra.
Listening to patients and families Speaking up