The NHS is rolling out two new roles—patient safety specialists and patient safety partners—across England, but no one has yet checked whether they actually work. The problem is clear: the NHS still harms patients too often, and fixing this costs huge sums of money. The two roles represent a major investment—specialists are employed staff who lead safety improvements, while partners are patients and carers who bring an outside perspective. Yet neither has been formally evaluated. This study fills that gap by tracking how the roles are implemented, what they actually do, and whether they improve safety. If the research succeeds, it will produce practical recommendations for NHS managers, policymakers, and the role-holders themselves. The findings could reshape how every NHS organisation manages patient safety—influencing training, day-to-day practice, and long-term strategy. Because the team is working directly with NHS England, the results are likely to feed straight into national policy, not sit on a shelf.
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BACKGROUND Like other healthcare systems, the NHS faces challenges in improving safety of care, resulting in harms to patients and major financial costs. As part of its long-term strategy for improving safety, the NHS in England has introduced two new roles. Patient safety specialists, to be employed in all NHS organisations, provide expertise, focus and leadership in managing and improving patient safety. Patient safety partners are patients, carers and people from other backgrounds outside healthcare who offer an additional crucial perspective in advancing safety. The roles represent a major investment but to date, neither has been fully evaluated. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES We aim to inform policy and practice by evaluating the development, implementation and evolution of the patient safety specialist and partner roles, in close collaboration with stakeholders. We will pursue three objectives: • To undertake a programme of four linked, mixed-methods studies relating to the implementation of the two roles. • To collaborate closely with stakeholders including specialists, partners, policymakers, patients, the public and others to ensure the study is informed by their priorities, insights and experiences. • To produce novel, insightful, practically useful outputs for policy, practice and academic audiences, including actionable recommendations for role-holders, managers, and future policy. METHODS Our mixed-methods evaluation will incorporate formative, summative and developmental approaches, and will be delivered through four workstreams. In Workstream 1, we will use qualitative interviews to gather insights from other industries in which similar safety-related roles have been introduced, and distil learning for healthcare. Workstream 2 will involve longitudinal surveys of patient safety specialists to follow the role’s development, building on a baseline survey administered in 2023, and analysis of work undertaken by specialists during their training to examine the extent to which this incorporates advanced theory, methods and evidence, and how this varies. Workstream 3 will develop a theory of change for patient safety partners (mirroring work already undertaken for specialists) using qualitative interviews, and use longitudinal surveys to examine the evolution of the role. Finally, Workstream 4 will involve six organisational case studies of the work of partners and specialists in varied NHS contexts, including a focus on their work to promote equity in patient safety. All workstreams will be supported by an expert collaborative group of stakeholders including specialists, partners, policymakers, the public and others, and by joint interpretive forums that bring a wider group of stakeholders together to enhance analysis. TIMELINES FOR DELIVERY The study will be delivered over 36 months from early 2025. ANTICIPATED IMPACT AND DISSEMINATION The study will be conducted in close collaboration with NHS England, to inform their long-term strategy and support for the roles. Via coinvestigators involved in the national Patient Safety Syllabus, we will also influence training and development for specialists, partners and the wider workforce. We have outstanding links with other groups with reach to key audiences, and will work closely with these collaborators to develop guidance, recommendations and other resources for specialists, partners and those working with them, based on the evidence we produce.
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