Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions his Department has had with NHS trusts regarding the consistent implementation of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework within mental health services.

NHS England has published guidance setting out oversight roles and responsibilities in relation to the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework.

Trust boards, or leadership teams in the case of National Health Service organisations without boards, are responsible and accountable for effective patient safety incident management in their organisation. Integrated care boards, or NHS England where it is the commissioner of the service, are responsible for establishing and maintaining structures for supporting a coordinated approach to oversight of patient safety incident response in all the services within their system. NHS England regional teams are responsible for supporting integrated care boards, and through the regional independent investigation teams, support the response to incidents that may require an independent investigation.

Work is ongoing to consider where amendments to organisational oversight responsibilities are needed in line with organisational changes across the NHS, particularly at integrated care board and NHS England regional level.