Contributed to the development of national policy and

• Contributed to the development of national policy and ensured operational alignment with
this. For example, contributed to the National Quality Board review of Quality Surveillance
Groups (QSGs) and Risk Summits and implemented the resulting guidance published in July
2017.
• Provided feedback on national consultations regarding key pieces of work. For example, in
March 2018 responded to the national consultation on ‘Facing the Facts, Shaping the Future:
A draft health and care workforce strategy for England to 2027’.
• Continued work to strengthen NHS England’s internal processes for responding to and learning
from Coroners’ Regulation 28 Reports to Prevent Future Deaths, with plans to work with NHS
Improvement to ensure system oversight of learning and actions from all relevant reports.
• Used clinical leadership to draw attention across the system to specific quality issues.

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ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18 ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT
QSGs provide a network in every locality and region which systematically brings together
different parts of the system (including commissioners and regulators) to share quality
information, seek assurance and coordinate actions to drive quality improvements.
Risk Summits also provide a mechanism for partners to come together, this time to give
specific and focussed consideration to concerns raised, generally in relation to a single provider.
There are currently 28 local QSGs, reporting to four regional QSGs, which in turn report to
the national QAG. Quality risks and issues are identified and managed at the local level and
escalated (if necessary) to the regional level (Regional QSGs) and/or national level (QAG).
Other assurance
Cyber and data security
NHS England continues to work with Government agencies such as NHS Digital, the National
Security Centre and external suppliers of data and systems to NHS England (including but not
limited to Atos and BT), to ensure that we are up to date with the latest threats and that our
data is stored and protected appropriately. NHS Digital’s Care Computer Emergency Response
Team (CareCERT) offers advice and guidance to all health and social care organisations to
respond to cyber security threats. Suppliers to NHS England have been informed that it is
imperative that all security patches are implemented in a timely and controlled manner to assist
in the negation of cyber attacks. NHS England Corporate ICT is also closely linked in with EPRR
to ensure that any required communication flows and IT advice are available if required in the
event of any substantial attack.
In addition to corporate activity, NHS England is actively leading work with other system
partners to ensure that a robust approach is taken on cyber security across the service.