Safer care for all: what progress has been made?

In September 2022, we published Safer care for all: solutions from professional regulation and beyond   It highlighted some of the biggest challenges affecting the quality and safety of health and social care across the UK and put forward recommendations to ensure safer care for all. It was a call to action for the health and social care sector to work collaboratively to address major outstanding safety concerns in the UK.

Safer care for all described how fragmented the landscape we are operating in is – health, social care, and four countries, each with complex patient and public safety mechanisms spanning numerous different bodies, all with their own remit and focus. But whose responsibility is it to look at the bigger picture? 

In recent weeks, we have seen at least five inquiries and reviews publish their reports, which are each important drivers for change, and yet there is no-one directly responsible for following up, checking what has been enacted and holding organisations to account where necessary. One of our main recommendations in Safer care for all was the creation of an independent mechanism which would provide centralised coordination and oversight of public inquiries and reviews into health and care failings. The idea is that this would bring greater coherence to ways of working, for example, agreeing terms of reference. It would also report on the progress of inquiry recommendations so that lessons can be learned and mistakes not repeated. While there have been efforts to address this problem and the National Quality Board has been tasked with setting up a recommendations 'hub' and supporting action in England, a coherent UK-wide approach has not yet been implemented and, we believe, is still very much needed. 

So, what progress has been made since we published Safer care for all?  When we published our new Strategic Plan 2026-29 in April, we thought it was time to take stock. There has been progress, but there is much more to do. To find out more, watch our short video or read a longer-form update.