The Yorkshire & Humber Patient Safety Collaborative, August 2024.
Since the Framework for involving patients in patient safety was published by NHSE in 2021, Trusts have been recruiting Patient Safety Partners (PSPs) to ‘support and contribute to a healthcare organisation’s governance and management processes for patient safety’. In the Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Collaborative, we have offered support to the PSPs in our region as they navigate these new roles.
In September 2023, we ran a focus group for PSPs and asked about experiences of the role; motivations and expectations; what is going well; what could be improved; how the role can be supported and developed.
The PSPs we spoke to were extremely motivated individuals who wanted to give their time, energy, unique perspectives and ideas to make a real difference. However, they told us that the sheer scale of the potential remit could be overwhelming, that recruitment and payment processes were not standardised or equitable between Trusts, and that Trusts had to provide adequate resource and support to PSPs if these roles were to be effective.
From this focus group, PSPs were inspired to share learning and tips for success with those coming new to the role, as more people are being recruited at pace. Yes the role had been challenging, but 6-12 months in, perseverance was paying off for some, especially where the right support and mentoring from their organisations had been available. We therefore co-designed a ‘Survival Guide’ for sharing with the wider PSP community, which is available for download here.
We continue to feed our PSP insights back to system leaders and we hope they are helpful in shaping the approach Trusts take to the role going forward. For the PSPs themselves, we have established a regional peer network in recognition of their learning and support needs, but also of their real commitment. We have been full of admiration as we have got to know these people who are dedicated to give their time and unique perspectives to improve health services for their communities. Their motivation warrants real acknowledgement, and we hope our network goes a small way towards this. We simply provide a virtual meeting space for an hour approximately every 2 months. Here, we can share any updates on Patient Safety that could be of interest and allow them to discuss challenges and successes with like-minded people. We have also invited them to other forums that we host for patient safety staff, to spark conversations, build links, and meet each-other face-to-face.
So far, this cross-fertilization of ideas, insights, motivations and challenges between the staff we support, and the PSPs we support, is proving invaluable, and we are pleased to be well-placed to facilitate it: ‘having PSPs and Patient Safety Specialists together is really good. It’s really important for standard practice to do things together’. It helps staff recognise how much PSPs can bring, but it also helps PSPs understand staff roles and remits: ‘really impressive how much health professionals care when they have so much on their plate’.
If you would like to find out more about our PSP peer network, please email Academy@yhia.nhs.uk.
Don’t forget to download and share the Survival Guide with new PSPs, and with the colleagues who support them. The guide has been endorsed by Allan Burge, Patient Safety Policy Lead, NHS England: ‘I think this is a great resource which I’d like to post to our Futures page’.
