We’re a new organisation, and we became operational on 1st April 2017. Our purpose is to carry out investigations that improve patient safety and don’t apportion blame or liability.
Although funded
through the Department of Health, and hosted by NHS Improvement we act
independently. We are also independent from other regulatory bodies, like the
Care Quality Commission (CQC). We’ve provided more detail on what happens
before, during and after an investigation here
Engaging with
staff within organisations is an important part of our process, whether you are
directly involved in a specific event, or have expertise on a particular
subject matter. We feel it’s important to focus on the wider opportunities to
learn for improvement.
As we build our
methodology and insight over time, we hope to be able to share that with staff
teams and organisations, to help support learning and raise the standard of
local investigations.
We aim to be as
transparent as possible in our approach so we’ve designed this section to
explain more about how cases are referred, what informs our decision to
investigate, our approach to investigations and where staff can access
additional support.