The National Quality Board (NQB) has published a new framework to help promote improved quality across all national health organisations.
The new publication provides a nationally agreed definition of quality and a guide for managers and leaders of health and social care organisations across the country to help them improve quality. The framework aims to provide more consistency and to enable the health and social care system to work together more effectively.
The NQB brings together the Department of Health, Public Health England, NHS England, Care Quality Commission, NHS Improvement, and the National Institute of Care Excellence and was established to provide leadership on quality.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals and co-chair of the NQB, said: “CQC’s State of Care report highlighted variation in quality in all the sectors it regulates – between providers and even between different services from the same provider. The first step in improving quality is for us to have a common view of what we mean by it. The NQB’s single shared view of quality envisages person-centred services that are safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led, and which use resources in a sustainable way.
“This document sets out our commitment to quality, and we’ll demonstrate that commitment in practical ways. For example by using the National Quality Board to co-ordinate work on quality across health and care, and commissioning work from others that supports quality improvement. We are also aligning the way we assess and support leadership, which should make it easier for providers to demonstrate the good leadership that staff and people who use services rely on.”
The Shared Commitment to Quality can be found at https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/part-rel/nqb.
The first step in improving quality is for us to have a common view of what we mean by it.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals and co-chair of the NQB