Cymru Strategy: Achieving Quality and Safety Improvement (2021-2026)

Summary

Improvement Cymru launches their new strategy ‘Achieving Quality and Safety Improvement’ which will support organisations across Wales to deliver Welsh Government’s Quality and Safety Framework.

Content

Putting quality and safety above all else is the first NHS Wales core value. This focus has been strengthened more recently through the Health and Social Care (Quality and Engagement) (Wales) Act (2020), the National Clinical Framework for Wales (2021) and the Quality and Safety Framework (2021). Collectively these set out an aspiration for quality-led health and care services, underpinned by prudent healthcare principles, value-based healthcare and the quadruple aim. In response, and in the context of the challenges at this stage of the pandemic and moving into a recovery phase, Improvement Cymru have evolved their approach to:

• Reflect a stronger focus on supporting organisations to drive their improvements rather than individual national programmes, and co-designing our work with them.
• Provide tailored support for senior leaders, managers and frontline staff to address their quality and safety challenges in the context of the pandemic and recent policy changes.
• Enable organisations to improve quality and safety, as defined by their service users, families, carers and workforce, and engage them in aspects of care at all levels and in all settings across the continuum of care including primary care.
• Support organisations to rebalance care away from hospitals and focus on preventing and reducing pre- and post-COVID19 harms across the continuum of care.
• Address the technical, social and cultural elements required to spread and scale improvements in any setting.

By working in partnership with Improvement Cymru organisations will be supported to embed the Quality Act.

They are also launching a new safety programme called ‘Safe Care Together’ which will provide nationally coordinated, locally delivered support to organisations across the continuum of care.

Safe Care Together, will enable health boards and trusts to achieve evidence based clinical and operational safety improvements, helping them to embed the Health and Social Care Act 2020. Our work will be co-developed with organisations, offering bespoke support to help them to create the conditions, build the capability and make the connections for improvement to flourish. The programme is open to all health boards and trusts across Wale.