Introduction

Thank you for your interest in becoming a patient safety partner (PSP) in NHS England’s National Patient Safety team or the NHS England regional teams. PSPs can be patients, service users, carers, family members or other patient safety advocates. To apply for these roles you can work in NHS organisations, though not for NHS England.

The main purpose of the role is to be a voice for patients and communities and ensure that the patient perspective is at the forefront of all that we do to improve patient safety. PSPs perform a different role than NHS volunteers or other NHS public engagement work. PSPs provide a different view specifically on patient safety, which can help us to make healthcare services safer for patients.

As a PSP, your role in the team will include

• Working side by side with healthcare professionals, decision makers and other experts on a variety of projects that match your interests, skills, and availability
• Actively ensuring your perspective as an advocate, service user or patient is heard and has a real positive impact on healthcare.
• Influencing multi-professional groups and national committees from the perspective of your patient, service user or community voice.
• Learning new skills and knowledge and making connections with a wide range of people interested in patient safety.

Please read this expression of interest information pack before completing the form for these roles. It should help you to decide if the PSP role is right for you. We would also encourage you to have an informal chat about being a PSP before you apply, so please contact Allan Burge, Patient safety policy lead at allan.burge@nhs.net or 07876 851857 or Hester Wain, Head of patient safety policy at hester.wain@nhs.net or 07941980914.

Correspondence will be primarily via email, unless otherwise requested. If you do not have access to email and would like to be contacted via telephone, please tell us.

Key aspects of the work as a Patient Safety Partner are eligible for an involvement payment, for example roles demonstrating strategic and accountable leadership and decision making. For more information please see NHS England’s PPV Partner Expenses and Involvement Payments Policy. You can choose to decline an involvement payment if you wish.

Please note: involvement payments are classed as a form of income by HMRC and are subject to deductions at source including tax and National Insurance (depending on individual circumstances).

Involvement payments are made via payroll for tax purposes only, to ensure that NHS England makes payments in a tax compliant way in line with HMRC guidance. As a PSP you would not be an employee, worker or agent of NHS England.

Before accepting an offer of a role with an involvement payment you may wish to get independent financial advice. NHS England is not able to provide benefits advice (or any other financial advice) to PSPs Partners. However, free confidential advice is available for people who are in receipt of benefits and are involved, or considering involvement, with NHS England. Please contact england.peopleandcommunities@nhs.net to make use of this service.

The closing date for expressions of interest is 21 November 2024.

Diversity, equality and inclusion

NHS England values and promotes diversity. To help us understand if we are achieving this, we ask you to fill out an anonymous diversity monitoring form as part of the expression of interest process.

Applicants who state that they have a disability and successfully evidence the essential criteria will be offered a chat with the team. Please note: In certain recruitment situations such as high volumes of applicants, we will meet with disabled applicants who best meet the essential criteria rather than all of those that meet the essential criteria.

If you do not wish to complete the online form, you can send these documents by email to patientsafetyenquiries@nhs.net or complete them as audio-recordings and send by email.

We understand that filling in forms is not the most accessible way for some people to apply for roles. We do not want the expression of interest process to be a barrier to your involvement. If you would like to apply for the role in a different way, for example by telephone, or by sending a voice recording or if you would like support to apply for this role, and/or information in another format please contact patientsafetyenquiries@nhs.net.

We will rely on the information you provide in the expression of interest form to assess whether you are a good fit for the role.

How to apply

Please complete the following:

• expression of interest form
• diversity monitoring form

If you would like support to enable you to apply for this role, and/or information in another format please contact us at patientsafetyenquiries@nhs.net

Once we receive your expression of interest

The steps will be as follows:

1. We will email you to acknowledge receipt of your expression of interest form (or by telephone if preferred).
2. Expressions of interest will be reviewed by members of the National Patient Safety team, NHS England regional teams and current Patient Safety Partners against the desirable skills and experience criteria.
3. You may be asked to attend a chat with a couple of Patient Safety team staff and PSPs. Selection for this will be made based on the content of the expression of interest form.
4. These chats will typically take place using Microsoft Teams. This is an opportunity to share more information about your experience and expression of interest, as well as to ask questions about being a PSP. You will be provided with the chat questions in advance.
5. Please note that we may contact your personal references before any potential role is confirmed.
6. We will contact all applicants about the outcome of your expression of interest by email, or by telephone if you prefer. All applicants will be offered feedback on their expressions of interest.

If you wish to be informed about future involvement opportunities, please sign up to receive our Patient safety partners Matters newsletter here: NHS England » Patient safety bulletin.

Role specific information

Background, context and aims of the programme

The NHS Patient Safety Strategy describes how the NHS will support staff and healthcare providers to share safety insight and empower people – patients and staff – with the skills, confidence and tools to improve safety.

NHS England’s National Patient Safety team supports the NHS to achieve the strategy’s aims through a series of programmes of work. Our work relates to the strategy’s foundations of ‘patient safety culture’ and ‘patient safety systems’, and the three strategic aims: ‘insight’, ‘involvement’ and ‘improvement’.

For an update on our progress so far please see our website. Our patient safety partners have been important contributors in all our programmes of work.

Would you like to hear what it is like to be a patient safety partner? Listen here on Soundcloud:

• How patient safety partners have helped to shape the National Medical Examiner System
• How patient safety partners have helped to shape Patient safety healthcare inequalities reduction

What is the role of patient safety partners in NHS England’s National Patient Safety team?

PSPs bring important views, perspective, and challenge into the team, which can help us to make healthcare services safer for patients. PSPs in the Patient Safety team perform a different role than PSPs working directly within healthcare organisations such as your local hospital. As a Patient Safety team PSP, you will have an opportunity to contribute to a variety of NHS-wide tasks that match your interests, skills, and availability. Previous and current PSP tasks include

• Ensuring that the groups such as the Martha’s Rule programme board, National Patient Safety Committee and Independent Investigations Committee consider service user, patient, carer and family perspective in all of their work
• Contributing to the design and content of our film: Simple steps to keep you safe during your hospital stay
• Participating in interview panels for national Patient Safety team roles (staff and new PSPs).

Please note, we currently need PSPs to join our regional independent investigation review groups, which provide oversight of patient safety incidents (primarily Mental Healthcare related homicides), which may require an independent patient safety incident investigation. All National PSPs (included those newly recruited) will be offered an opportunity to support this specific task.

What is the role of patient safety partners in NHS England’s regional teams?

As an NHS England regional team PSP, your main role is to ensure that the patient voice is heard at regional level, with the core purpose of improving safety and quality. Each PSP’s remit will include a mix of formal committees and working groups or project work which may include

• participation in Quality and Safety Committees, governance meetings
• codesigning patient safety-related projects and initiatives
• participation in investigation oversight groups
• reading and commenting on policy documents

Ideally you will have some familiarity of healthcare in the region(s) you are interested in, but this is not a requirement. For more information on our seven regions please see: regional teams. You are welcome to apply for both national and regional PSPs roles.

If you would like an informal chat about any of the NHS England regional PSP roles, please contact:

• East of England – contact Gabby Irwin, Associate Director of Quality and Transformation, gabrielleirwin@nhs.net or
• London – contact Jess Peck, Senior Clinical Quality Manager, peck@nhs.net or 07794144829.
• North East and Yorkshire – contact Karen Conway, Deputy Director Clinical Quality, ney-investigations@nhs.net or 07900715437.
• North West – contact Elizabeth Ratcliffe Regional Head of Nursing, Safeguarding & Investigations Lead, ratcliffe1@nhs.net or 07710152598.
• South East – contact Sarah Fishburn, Senior Clinical Quality Improvement Manager at se-cqi@nhs.net or 07730 381189.

All PSPs will need to comply with NHS England’s standards of conduct and respect the confidential nature of some discussions. The team will make it clear when a topic is confidential.

Skills and experience desirable for this role

Patient safety partners bring a wide range of personal and professional knowledge and experience, and we aim to ensure diverse perspectives are represented. The following skills and experience are not essential but will help new PSPs to be prepared for the core elements of the role from the start. During your role as a PSP, you will be supported to enable you to contribute to the best of your ability.

Knowledge

• Understanding of and broad interest in health care and patient safety, for example as a patient, service user, family member, carer or advocate.
• The importance of equality, diversity and inclusion in healthcare.

Skills

• Ability to communicate clearly verbally and in writing with a range of different people, including with senior professionals and leaders
• Ability to clearly and respectfully express views and experiences, as an advocate for patient safety
• Sound judgement and an ability to be objective
• Ability to read, understand and evaluate a range of information and evidence in English, such as Board reports, quantitative (numerical) data and research studies
• Able to speak up about their views, and where appropriate represent the views of others

Experience

• Interaction with people and groups with differing and sometimes challenging viewpoints
• Experience of working in partnership with professional and/or community organisations
• Experience of championing diversity and inclusion, challenging inequalities, or speaking up
• Lived experience of patient safety challenges and their impact
• Passionate about healthcare

Time commitment

• Your time commitment is flexible. Each task (projects, committees) will clearly state the estimated time commitment and frequency of meetings, and you will be involved in the tasks that interest you.
• The minimum time commitment is a half day per month, though on average most PSPs spend 2 days per month on relevant tasks.
• Please note that the tenure for a Patient Safety Partner in the national Patient Safety team is 4 years, which can be extended for further 4 years maximum. PSPs working with other organisations are welcome to apply and can hold multiple PSP positions.
• Meetings will usually take place in online using Microsoft Teams.

Support for PSPs

• There are a range of learning and development opportunities available to PSPs. These will be shared throughout your time in the role.
• Regular PSP team meetings, either in person or online, for networking and learning more about the work.
• You will receive an induction from on the work and the role of PSPs in your organisation.
• You will be offered one to one support and opportunities to collaborate with other PSPs and NHS staff.

NHS England

• We can offer equipment support for PSPs who may need a laptop, internet data, or other IT equipment to do their role.
• There are a range of learning and development opportunities available to PSPs, and opportunities to connect with wider patient and public voice colleagues in NHS England.
• NHS England has an Employee Assistance Programme which is available to anyone who works with or supports NHS England, including contractors and PSPs.