Our role in quality and safety in Essex
NHS Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) is responsible for overseeing quality and safety in Essex. We make sure the NHS services we commission are safe, effective and provide a positive experience for patients.
We work closely with NHS providers, local authorities and other partners to reduce harm, improve outcomes and strengthen people’s experience of care.
Quality in the NHS has three key parts:
- Safety – protecting people from avoidable harm
- Clinical effectiveness – providing care based on evidence and best practice
- Experience – ensuring people have a positive experience of care
Our work supports the health and wellbeing of people across Essex at every stage of life.
How we oversee quality and safety in Essex
We monitor quality and safety across NHS services in Essex to identify risks early and support improvement.
This includes:
- Setting clear quality standards in provider contracts
- Reviewing clinical performance, safety and outcome data
- Listening to feedback from patients and staff
- Responding to concerns raised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
- Identifying trends, risks and areas for improvement
- Working with partners to coordinate improvement actions
We also bring organisations together through system quality groups to share learning and improve care across Essex.
Preventing incidents and improving safety
We work with NHS providers to improve patient safety and reduce the risk of harm.
This includes:
- Reviewing patient safety incident data
- Supporting the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)
- Sharing learning across organisations
- Strengthening safety systems and culture
When serious incidents occur, we work with providers to understand what happened and support improvements to prevent recurrence.
Infection prevention and control
We work with hospitals, community services, GP practices and public health partners to reduce infections and protect patients.
This includes:
- Supporting infection prevention and control plans
- Monitoring infection data and trends
- Sharing learning from outbreaks
- Supporting providers to meet national standards
This work helps protect patients, staff and visitors across all care settings.
Learning disability and autism
We work with providers to ensure people with a learning disability and autistic people receive safe, high-quality and person-centred care.
Our work includes:
- Supporting improvements in inpatient and community services
- Monitoring safety, quality and access to reasonable adjustments
- Identifying and addressing inequalities
- Supporting safe care for people placed in Essex
We also use learning from national and local reviews to improve services.
Learning from deaths
We work with NHS providers to review and learn from deaths through the national Learning from Deaths framework.
This includes:
- Identifying themes and patterns
- Supporting improvements in care
- Sharing learning across organisations
- Improving end-of-life care
We also work with Child Death Overview Panels to help understand and prevent future deaths.
Supporting well-led and sustainable services
Strong leadership and governance are essential for safe, high-quality care.
We support providers by:
- Reviewing Care Quality Commission findings
- Supporting improvement plans
- Encouraging collaboration across organisations
- Reducing variation in care
This helps ensure services remain safe, effective and sustainable.
Listening to patients and learning from experience
Patient experience plays a vital role in improving care.
We review:
- Feedback from patients and carers
- Complaints, concerns and compliments
- National and local surveys
- Insight from Healthwatch and community organisations
This feedback helps us understand what works well and where services need to improve.
Visit our Patient experience and complaints page to find out more.
You can also visit our Get involved in health and care in Essex page to share your views.