43 Response Accepted

Maintain focus on quality

Recommendation

We strongly endorse the emphasis placed on the quality of NHS services that began with the Darzi review, High Quality Care for All, and gathered importance with the response to the events at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. Our findings confirm that this was necessary and must not be lost. We are concerned that the scale of recent NHS reconfiguration could result in new organisations and post-holders losing the focus on this priority. We recommend that the importance of putting quality first is re-emphasised and local arrangements reviewed to identify any need for personal or organisational development, including amongst clinical leadership in commissioning organisations. Action: NHS England, the Department of Health.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
- In July 2015, the government stated: "We accept this recommendation, and strongly agree that the emphasis on quality of care must be maintained" (Learning Not Blaming, Cm 9113, Department of Health, July 2015).
- The National Quality Board was re-established to provide leadership for quality across the NHS (Learning Not Blaming, Cm 9113, Department of Health, July 2015).
- The CQC's five-domain inspection framework (safe, effective, caring, responsive, well-led) places quality assessment at the centre of the regulatory regime (CQC).
- The Health and Care Act 2022 imposed a new duty on NHS England to have regard to the "triple aim" of better health, better care, and efficient use of resources (Health and Care Act 2022, c.31).
Sources
How was this evidence gathered?
Evidence searched by Claude (Anthropic) on 10 Apr 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
This recommendation asks for cultural or behavioural change, which is difficult to verify from published sources alone. The evidence above reflects policy commitments rather than measured outcomes.
Jurisdiction
England
Response
Accepted
Accepted NHS England
16 Jul 2015

111. We accept this recommendation, and strongly agree that the emphasis on
quality of care must be maintained, and that service changes should put the safety
and quality of patient care as central objectives. Indeed the recent NHS reforms to
the structure and assessment of the health service, including GP-led commissioning
and an expert-led inspection system have put clinical priorities and patient care at its
heart. The Government will continue to prioritise the quality of care, and will hold its
arms-length bodies to account on their commitments to reinforce and improve the
quality of care. This will be a key focus of the newly re-established National Quality
Board, in providing leadership for quality across the NHS.
96

Read Full Response
Source
Inquiry Morecambe Bay Investigation
Report Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation 03 Mar 2015
View Source
Responsible Bodies
NHS England Primary
Themes & Tags
Quality and safety oversight Patient safety governance Quality Commissioning Clinical Leadership
Recommendation age 11.2 yrs
Last formal update 3972 days ago