Maintain focus on quality
Morecambe Bay Investigation · Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation · Issued 3 March 2015 · Addressed to: NHS England
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry 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.
Morecambe Bay Investigation, Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation · 3 Mar 2015 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- 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).
Response — verbatim from government
●NHS England
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
NHS England · 16 Jul 2015 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 31 Dec 2015 Quality remains central focus of NHS. CQC inspection framework and NHS oversight arrangements prioritise quality of care. Source →
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.