Minister for Health Innovation and Safety (): I am pleased to inform
the House of the publication of our new Quality Strategy for
NHS-funded Care in England, developed by the National Quality
Board, which sets out a clear and ambitious approach to improving
the quality of care across the NHS in England, and represents
delivery of a key commitment from our 10-Year Health Plan.
The Strategy reaffirms that quality must, once again, be the
organising principle of the NHS. It sets a clear national
objective: that highquality care should be available to everyone,
everywhere, regardless of who they are or where they live.
The Strategy makes clear that quality is defined across three
inseparable and equally important domains: patient safety,
clinical effectiveness and patient experience. Whilst patient
safety rightly remains the foundation, the Strategy marks a
renewed and explicit focus on the other domains of quality so
that our efforts drive improvements in outcomes and ensure a
consistently high standard of care and experience for all
patients.
The need for this renewed focus is clear. Too many people still
experience variation in outcomes, fragmented care, and unequal
access to highquality services. The Strategy responds directly to
these challenges, with a strong emphasis on reducing unwarranted
variation and tackling health inequalities across all three
domains of quality.
Rather than introducing a new set of policies, the Strategy
provides a coherent framework for delivery, bringing together
existing commitments from the Government's 10-Year Health Plan.
It aligns national priorities and clarifies how improvement will
be led, overseen and delivered across the system. It is a call to
action for leaders, clinicians and staff across the NHS to treat
quality as their primary purpose, to use data transparently, and
to adopt value-based approaches that direct resources to the
interventions delivering the greatest benefit for patients and
communities.
The Strategy sets out how the NHS will focus its efforts on the
areas where improvements will have the greatest impact on
outcomes, experience and value, including major conditions such
as cancer, cardiovascular disease and severe mental illness. It
also reinforces the importance of improving maternity and
neonatal care, patient safety, and the consistent delivery of
evidencebased care. The National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce
will be taking forward work to improve the safety, effectiveness,
and experiences of maternity and neonatal care.
We are also placing a renewed emphasis on transparency,
accountability and leadership. Quality must be owned at every
level of the system: providers are accountable for the care they
deliver, integrated care boards must commission on the basis of
quality and population need, and national bodies must provide
clear leadership and oversight.
Importantly, the Strategy also places the patient voice at its
centre, recognising that listening to and working with people and
communities are essential to improving services and ensuring care
is responsive, personcentred, safe and effective.
Delivery will be supported by a clear set of system enablers,
including improved accountability, better use of data, and the
wider adoption of innovation and technology. At its heart,
quality is underpinned by leadership, culture, and a shared
commitment to deliver high standards. The Strategy is a clear
call to action to collectively create the conditions needed for
sustained improvement across all parts of the NHS.
I am pleased to confirm that delivery of the Strategy is already
underway, with the Modern Service Framework (MSF) for Sepsis also
being published today, and the MSF for Cardiovascular Disease
having been published on 7 July. MSFs are intended to support the
NHS provide consistent, high-quality, high-value and equitable
care across key clinical pathways. Where appropriate, they will
span both health and social care services, including the points
where services join up. In addition to the two MSFs already
delivered, development is well underway on further MSFs covering
Severe Mental Illness, Palliative and End of Life Care, Frailty
and Dementia, and Children and Young People this is one of the
ways we are ensuring that the principles set out in the new
Quality Strategy are translated into practical improvements for
patients across the NHS.
