About the network

Who we are and what we do

The Serious Incident Review Accreditation Network (SIRAN) works with organisations to improve the standards and quality of serious incident review processes. Quality standards were developed with experts in the field, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists Invited Review Service, in addition to a newly formed peer group of organisations with representation from across the UK, including the devolved nations.

Who is it for?

The Serious Incident Review Accreditation Network is aimed at an organisation level, rather than at the level of an individual team or service. The establishment of the network is very timely with the awaited publication of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework in England.

We work with members to facilitate the sharing of ideas and expertise relating to serious incident reviews.

The core process involves a reflective self-review against nationally agreed standards for serious incident reviews. This is followed by SIRAN data collection and a peer-review of your organisation.

Accreditation process

Self-review

During this phase, the service will undertake a self-review, including questionnaires or staff.

These enable organisations to review their local procedures and practices against the standards and, if necessary, to make the changes required to achieve accreditation. The self-review will take place either over three months. A summary of the results from the self-review forms the basis of the discussion at the peer-review visit.

Peer-review

The peer-review visit takes place up to four weeks after you have completed your self-review. A team of up to four professionals (comprising of staff from other member services) and a Network representative will undertake a peer-review visit. In addition to validating your self-review, the peer-review provides an opportunity for discussion, sharing of ideas and for the visiting team to offer advice and support.

Local report

Information from the self- and peer-review is compiled into a local draft report which is verified by the peer-review team and the service. They will be given an opportunity to comment and provide further evidence before finalising the report. All final reports will be compiled into an annual aggregated report where services can benchmark.

Accreditation

Information from the self- and peer-review that is compiled into a summary report is submitted to the Accreditation Committee (AC). If services are not reaching a certain threshold of type 1 standards, they may be deferred to the developmental membership. The committee makes a decision about the service’s accreditation.

There are three categories of accreditation status:

  • Accredited
  • Accreditation deferred
  • Not accredited

Services that cannot achieve accreditation at the point of review but are expected to be able to do so in the near future are deferred for a time-limited period in which they must meet the necessary standards. Services can be presented to the AC up to three times within a 12 month period.

Accreditation is valid for up to three years, subject to the satisfactory completion of an interim self-review.


Join the network

New teams can join and start the accreditation process at any time.

If you would like to join the network, please email us with details of the Trust you'd like to sign up. We'll then arrange together a convenient time for the team to start the review process.

How much does it cost?

The accreditation programme is funded on a subscription basis. The annual fee is £3,095 + VAT per team, which includes access to all our materials and events.

A 5% discount is available if signing up for three years at once. 
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