NHS England’s mission is to secure high quality care for all – now and for future generations. Last year the Quality Working Group (QWG) was established by the NHS Commissioning Assembly to enable local commissioners and national directors to work together on the Quality agenda and to drive implementation of the NHS Outcomes Framework.

Currently there are over 45 members (including the five national clinical domain directors, the national director for the NHS Quality Framework, over 30 directors of local CCGs and a number of NHS England area team directors). All have a strong interest in the driving the quality agenda nationally to support commissioners locally.

The roll of QWG members, and the products being developed from this group, is on two key aspects:

• Supporting commissioners in fulfilling their role in assuring the quality of care being provided to their communities, by identifying what more could be done to clarify and support them in this role
• Connecting the local priorities and activities of CCGs with the national action of NHS England, under a common vision for driving improvement in quality and outcomes, with associated resources and materials to support commissioners

While the group was only formed last year and is very new, it meets regularly and is now highly active and influential in driving the quality agenda across the whole NHS commissioning system. Just before EXPO the co-chairs of this group John Stewart (Director, Quality Framework, NHS England) and Dr Paul Husselbee (Clinical lead officer, NHS Southend CCG) sat down to discuss the importance of the quality agenda and the role of the Quality Working Group in driving this:

Further Reources

Find out more information about our mission to ensure high quality care for all, and what high quality care should look and feel like.

To view the outcome ambitions the QWG helped to develop, please see the strategic planning guidance published in December last year.

View the ‘how-to’ guide for local commissioners on setting 5-year outcome ambitions.