Never Events Policy Framework Review

Overview

Publication gateway number: 02320

The Never Events Policy Framework is designed to provide healthcare workers, clinicians, managers, boards and accountable officers with clarity around their responsibilities and clarity on the principles of never events. In particular, it is designed to be clear about what they are expected to do in terms of preventing never events and how they must respond to them if they should occur, including clarity around incident reporting.

This framework is being reviewed to address feedback from NHS providers and commissioners on a number of uncertainties around the existing Never Events Policy Framework. A core team of patient safety experts and health professionals have produced the initial draft of the revised framework, and we are now seeking wider views and opinions on the proposed changes via the public consultation.

All questions should be considered alongside the revised policy framework, list of never events and summary of changes made since the last version.  Links to these three documents can be found below.