Essentials of Safe Care
Creating the conditions for safe care for every person, within every setting, every time
The Essentials of Safe Care is a practical package of evidence-based guidance and support that enables Scotland’s health and social care system to deliver safe care. It forms the building blocks for each SPSP programme of work.
The essential drivers of safe care
Working in partnership with health and social care teams and a number of representative bodies across Scotland, the following essentials were identified as being central to supporting the safe delivery of care in any setting.
Essentials of Safe Care driver diagram
This interactive driver diagram outlines the key elements within each essential that can support achieving the overall aim of delivering safe care for every person, within every setting, every time.
Each essential provides a range of information and resources based on:
- the best available evidence
- existing standards and guidelines, and
- examples of current practice for services to consider as part of their own improvements.
Driver Diagram
The following resources have been developed to support you to implement the Essentials of Safe Care.
- Glossary - This glossary contains helpful explanations of some of the improvement tools we have used.
- Evaluation of Testing: Full Report - This report describes how these resources were tested and evaluated, with thanks to our colleagues from health and social care for their participation.
- Readiness and Prioritisation Tool - This tool helps to understand strengths and gaps in your organisation and teams, and prioritise areas for improvement.
- Measurement Framework - This document contains practical guidance to support you to measure the impact of implementing the Essentials of Safe Care.
- Measurement Toolkit – Run charts are an excellent way to present your data, and this toolkit will enable you to generate them using your local data.