Nursing, midwifery and care staff as part of their everyday practice are well-placed to identify opportunities for transformational change. Change that will support delivery of better outcomes and experiences of those who use our services. We have seen this during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as through recovery stages – nurses and midwives driving forwards innovative, new ways of working and embracing evidenced-based care which continues to benefit those they care for, and work with.

To support this, locally driven ward and unit accreditation approaches provide us with the tools to undertake a comprehensive assessment of quality of care within our services and organisations. It does this by bringing together key measures into a single overarching framework, from across clinical care as relevant to our staff and to those who use our services.

In its simplest form, locally drive ward and unit accreditation is:

• the development of a set of standards so that areas for improvement can be identified and areas of excellence celebrated.

Experience shows that programmes such as these can drive continuous improvement in outcomes, satisfaction and staff experience.

In April 2019, the Chief Nursing Officer for England launched the ‘Guide to developing and implementing ward and unit accreditation programme’ to support the rollout of locally driven ward and unit accreditation across England. The guide uses examples of good practice and shares learning from organisations adopting this way or working from across England as well as signposting to relevant tools and resources.

To find out more, please join the CNO’s Excellence community of practice on the FutureNHS Platform. (FutureNHS login required)