The National Quality Board (NQB) is a multi-stakeholder board established to champion quality and ensure alignment in quality throughout the NHS. The Board is a key aspect of the work to deliver high quality care for patients.
The Department of Health held a number of stakeholder events to shape the design of the NQB. Stakeholders’ views have shaped the NQB membership, its recruitments process and its role to provide strategic oversight and leadership in quality across the NHS.
The aim of the Board will be to bring together all those with an interest in improving quality, to align and agree the NHS quality goals, whilst respecting the independent status of participating organisations.
Key functions of the Board are to:
The board’s membership comprises a mix of skills and expertise. Membership includes representation from some of the national statutory and professional bodies that make up the national quality landscape for health and social care.
To demonstrate that quality is the responsibility of clinicians and managers throughout the system, Lord Darzi has invited David Nicholson, the NHS Chief Executive, to chair the Board.
In addition, four members were appointed from within the Department of Health. They are:
Four members were appointed from key national bodies with close links to the NHS. They are:
In addition, approximately half of the NQB members have been appointed independently. The Appointments Commission has recruited expert and lay representatives from a broad variety of backgrounds, including professional bodies, frontline NHS staff, industry, universities, charities and international healthcare organisations.
The expert members are:
The lay members are:
Special adviser:
The NQB held its first meeting on 30 March 2009, and will produce an annual report on delivering quality in the Autumn of 2009.
Health Minister Lord Darzi said:
‘My review set out a vision for the NHS which has quality as its organising principle. This is a big cultural shift for the health service, which rightly focused on improving access, cutting waiting times and modernising hospitals over the last 10 years.
'The National Quality Board will play a pivotal role in aligning quality at all levels in the NHS. This will be from clinical teams using quality metrics to improve care at a provider level, right up to SHAs benchmarking their services at a regional level.'
The National Quality Board's Committees support the Board in undertaking its work programme. Their membership is drawn from members of the Board, and when appropriate, external experts. Like the National Quality Board itself, papers and minutes from formal Board Committees will all be made publicly available.
The annual report sets out the many ways in which the NQB has worked over the last year to support frontline staff to improve quality and to ensure the health system is aligned around quality.
The National Quality Board will advise Ministers on clinical priorities for the NHS, and on topics for NICE quality standards. This stakeholder engagement seeks views on the Board's process for doing so.
View a short clip from the National Quality Board’s first meeting
Providing national guidance on promoting good health and preventing and treating ill health.
The nine Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) visions for better healthcare that formed the basis of Lord Darzi’s Next Stage Final Review.
Lord Darzi’s Next Stage Final Review outlines the strategic vision for an NHS with quality at its heart.
