This is a secondary driver for the Essentials of Safe Care “Safe clinical and care processes”
Change ideas
- Practitioner: Timely reporting and sharing of adverse events, successes and opportunities for improvement
- Team: Teams routinely collect, review and act on care assurance data, and contribute to local governance processes
- Organisation: Use a quality management system approach to deliver clinical and care governance
Tools and resources
- Healthcare Improvement Scotland. A national framework for reviewing and learning from adverse events in NHS Scotland: 2025.
- Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Quality Management System (QMS).[Online] [2025 Oct 10]
- Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Excellence in Care, Quality of Care Review Guidance 2024 [2025 Oct 7].
Evidence and further reading
- Beecham E, Brady G, Iqbal S, Fatima Q, Arshad S, Bondaronek P, et al. Systematic review of patient safety incident reporting practices in maternity care. BMJ Open Quality. 2025;14:e003432.
- Care Inspectorate. A Quality Framework for Care Homes for Adults and Older People. 2022.
- Fulop NJ, Ramsay AIG. Governance and Leadership. Cambridge University Press; 2023.
- Scottish Government. The Blueprint for Good Governance in NHS Scotland. 2nd Ed. 2022.