The team shapes and translates the policy direction and standards set by Welsh Government into action, working in partnership with senior leaders, external stakeholders and policy leads.
This includes national support and system leadership for:
In Wales, the Health and Social Care (Quality and Engagement) (Wales) Act 2020 includes a duty of quality which came into force in April 2023.
The duty applies to NHS bodies in Wales. It also applies to Welsh Ministers in relation to their health functions.
It has two overarching aims:
The duty of quality applies to everything we do in NHS Wales, whether we work in clinical roles or non-clinical services.
Our Quality and Safety team convenes a duty of quality community of practice that enables people to share knowledge, identify good practice and support ongoing national implementation of the duty.
If you would like to know more or find out who your organisational representative is, please contact us by email:
NHSWHC.Qualityandsafety@wales.nhs.uk
Health organisations around the world are recognising the need to shift from a focus on quality improvement methodology to the broader implementation of an approach to managing and improving quality.
The duty of quality requires all health bodies in Wales to report on their quality journey and as part of this, establish a quality management system (QMS)
Improvement Cymru has spent the past five years researching, developing and testing a quality management system approach that enables a health organisation to operate with quality at its core and to continuously improve to meet the needs of the population it serves.
Improvement Cymru has piloted the quality management system in two organisations to date.
An appreciation of quality and QMS will provide an important focus for the Safe Care Partnership (launching May 2025) and at an organisational level through the Duty of Quality Leaders workstream. Find out more about the Safe Care Partnership.