Quality improvement programmes

The NCCMH run a number of quality improvement programmes around mental health patient safety. The broader Mental Health Safety Improvement Programme (MHSIP) was established by NHS Improvement (NHSI) in partnership with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) who were tasked by the Secretary of State to improve patient safety in mental health trusts by delivering a national mental health safety initiative.

A number of safety improvement collaboratives sit within the MHSIP and focus on different areas of patient safety. For more information about all of our quality improvement programmes, please see below.

The overall aim of the Mental Health Safety Improvement Programme (MHSIP) is for every NHS trust providing core mental health services in England to have understood their safety priorities and begun working towards making measurable improvements in at least one key area of mental health safety by 31 March 2020. 

We're in the process of engaging with all NHS trusts providing core mental health services in England. The engagement process aligns with the CQC inspection cycle and trusts can expect to take part in the programme around one month after the publication of their CQC report.

Our MHSIP team engages with trusts along with NHSI and CQC regional teams to co-produce a safety improvement plan which: identifies the safety priorities and assets in the trust, the support that NHSI and the MHSIP will provide and the respective responsibilities of NHSI, the MHSIP and the Trust in that plan.

Our MHSIP team consists of:

  • Programme Leads
  • National Expert Advisers
  • Expert by Experience Advisers

Programme documents:

If you have any queries about the programme, please email us. 

Programme end date: March 2020 

A key part of the safety improvement programme involves running a quality improvement (QI) collaborative with ward-level teams on reducing restrictive practice.

This collaborative gives ward-level teams the chance to work with leading mental health QI experts and our QI coaches, and to share learning with other teams in this area.

Applications to take part in the programme are now closed and wards have been selected. We're unable to accept any further applications at this point and all wards who were unsuccessful will be notified by email. 

Information for wards taking part

Wards who have been accepted onto the programme can look forward to attending learning sets in London on the following dates:

  • 14 January 2019
  • 11 March 2019
  • 13 May 2019
  • 9 July 2019
  • 18 September 2019
  • 5 November 2019
  • 14 January 2020
  • 21 April 2020

Each ward has been allocated a Quality Improvement coach who will support the ward throughout the programme, both face-to-face and virtually. To get in touch with your QI coach, please contact either Saiqa, Kate, Emily or Matthew.    

For further information on the programme as well as links to resources, please visit the Reducing Restrictive Practice page.

Programme end date: April 2020 

The Sexual Safety Collaborative is part of a wider Mental Health Safety Improvement Programme (MHSIP) which was established by NHS Improvement (NHSI), in partnership with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), in response to a request made by the Secretary of State.

The Sexual Safety Collaborative has been established in response to the CQC report on Sexual Safety on Mental Health Wards and aims to meet a number of objectives:

  • Produce a set of standards around sexual safety during the mental health and learning disability inpatient pathways (including a strategy to measure and support quality improvement)
  • Run a national quality improvement (QI) collaborative to support inpatient mental health teams in every mental health trust in England to use QI to improve sexual safety on their wards.
  • Produce a library of resources, building on best practice to support the work of mental health trusts to improve sexual safety.

The standards are currently in development and will be used to inform the national quality improvement collaborative that wards have the chance to take part in.

Applications for the national quality improvement collaborative are now open.

If you would like to apply for your ward to take part, please download the application form below and send completed forms to safetyimprovement@rcpsych.ac.uk by 5pm on 26 July.

Please note: applications are open to NHS-commissioned services only. We regret that we are not able to accept applications from independent providers. However, all resources developed for the programme will be made available on our website for use outside of the programme.

If you have any queries about the programme, please email us.

Programme end date: November 2020

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