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Safe Care Collaborative approaches 40 improvement projects

Improvement Cymru has confirmed that 37 improvement projects are being supported in NHS Wales health boards and trusts by the Safe Care Collaborative.

The collaborative is providing teams, coaches, executives and senior leaders with expert, tailored coaching and support from Improvement Cymru and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to enhance and accelerate improvement projects.

Supporting services throughout Wales to deliver effective improvement projects across acute, ambulatory and community care workstreams, the collaborative is thought to be the widest ever ranging improvement activity to unite the Welsh health system.

Its fourth workstream, Leadership for Patient Safety Improvement, is guiding leaders through the Framework for Safe, Reliable and Effective Care, supporting the development of organisational learning systems, culture and working environments that will enable improvement to flourish for years to come.

Deputy Director and Head of Quality Improvement at Improvement Cymru, Dominique Bird, said:

“Health boards and trusts throughout Wales have really embraced the Safe Care Collaborative as a timely opportunity to accelerate improvements to patient safety across their health systems.

“Coordinating, supporting and enhancing such a large number of projects through the Safe Care Collaborative is putting a greater collective focus on improving patient care, which will amplify the great work health boards and trusts are implementing to achieve nationwide priorities for delivering safe care.  

“It is important to recognise that this is a difficult time for NHS organisations right across the country. However, in the face of those challenges we have seen incredible engagement and commitment among members of the Safe Care Collaborative for delivering improvement with its support.

“Improvement Cymru fully supports and shares that commitment, and we are very much looking forward to progressing through the Safe Care Collaborative journey together with teams towards achieving a better NHS Wales.”


The Safe Care Collaborative is part of the Safe Care Partnership between NHS organisations throughout Wales, Improvement Cymru and IHI, which aims to improve the quality and safety of care across their systems.

Over a focused 15-month journey, members will participate in a series of learning sessions featuring a range of keynote speakers, breakout discussions, planning workshops and skills sessions designed to support participants to spread and scale improvements through their organisations and across Wales. They will also receive coaching sessions and ad-hoc support from IHI and Improvement Cymru.

The collaborative follows the Safe Care Partnership’s Leading for Patient SafetyFoundational Site Visits and Coaching for Patient Safety phases, which supported partners to understand and develop the culture, learning systems, leadership and coaching capacity to facilitate patient safety improvement.

Find out more about the Safe Care Collaborative on our webpages here, or if you have an improvement project that you think could benefit from being part of the collaborative, please get in touch with your contact at Improvement Cymru.

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