Invited Review Service (IRS)

We help in cases where difficulties have been identified which cannot be rectified by internal processes, and the circumstances don’t meet the criteria for involving formal regulators.

As part of a final report that details the review team's findings, we aim to provide a number of clear and implementable recommendations to improve the quality of patient safety and care.

Examples of situations when we help

We provide bespoke, independent reviews when concerns have been identified in the following areas:

• Diagnostic practices 
• Concerns about a individual or team functioning
• Effectiveness of care planning and assessment
• Excess serious incidents
• Leadership
• Complex organisational matters relating to clinical management and service delivery
• Whistleblowing
• Quality assurance of an internal review process
• Assessment of governance processes

Types of review

We primarily carry out three types of review, depending on the context of the issues that have been highlighted:

• Service review – in this review we provide an expert opinion in relation to concerns about a specific clinical service. This normally involves us examining documents, a site visit and meetings with relevant people in the service.
• Individual/Team review – in this kind of review we provide an expert opinion on how a person or team is functioning. This normally involves a site visit, meetings with relevant people and examining documentation.
• Case note review – in this type of review we provide an independent expert opinion on whether the assessment and clinical management of a patient or patients is acceptable. We assess the care provided against approved/evidence-based documents such as Good Psychiatric Practice, Good Medical Practice and any other faculty-specific guidance/standards, depending on the details of the review.

We will only accept commissions for an Invited Review from the Executive Director (of Medicine, Nursing or Social Work) or Chief Executive of bodies that provide mental health care.

However, terms of reference can be developed with less senior managers (normally medical managers).

Once the review has been commissioned, and the terms of reference have been agreed, tasks related to organising the review can be delegated to other members of staff.

The Invited Review Service won’t conduct a review if:

• A GMC Fitness to Practise investigation is underway
• We do not have consent from doctors who may be subject to criticism
• The Police or Counter Fraud service is involved
• The Medical Director or CEO hasn’t commissioned the review

Operating principles

For more information on the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges ‘Operating principles for managing invited reviews within healthcare’ please visit the AOMRC website (PDF).

If your organisation is considering commissioning an Invited Review we would encourage an early confidential discussion to better understand how we can help.

An initial approach can be made via email by the organisation’s Medical Director, Nursing Director or Social Work Director with the knowledge of the Chief Executive.

Please email IRS@rcpsych.ac.uk with any enquiries.

Once we have established the scope and timeline of the review we will work with you to draft a terms of reference. The identification of appropriate terms of reference is an essential element of a high-quality review.

We are always open to recruit reviewers from all clinical backgrounds to take part in future reviews.

 If you are interested in joining the team, please email IRS@rcpsych.ac.uk.

Please see our Invited Review Services privacy notice page for further details about how IRS data is used.