Scotland - key agencies at a glance

This section includes information about the overarching national agencies:

Healthcare Improvement Scotland
Healthcare Improvement Scotland came into operation on 1 April 2011 and “has the focus and key responsibility to help NHS Scotland and independent health care providers deliver high quality, evidence-based, safe, effective and person-centred care; and to scrutinise services to provide public assurance about the quality and safety of that care”. It builds on work previously done by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) and the Care Commission and includes a number of organisations such as the Scottish Health Council; the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate and a number of others. Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s work in supporting the quality strategy encompasses three main areas – evidence, improvement and scrutiny. The work programme activities are described as: advice, guidance and standards; improvement and implementation support; assurance, scrutiny, measurement and reporting. For details see Supporting the Quality Strategy.

Healthscotland.com
Scotland's improvement agency provides information and resources to support health improvement practitioners and organisations working with us to improve Scotland's health and reduce inequalities.

NHS Scotland
This webpage brings together information contributed by organisations providing health care across Scotland.

Scottish Government: Health and Community Care
These are the pages for health and community care topics within the Scottish Government website with links to consultations, publications and key organisations.

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)
SIGN develops clinical guidelines on behalf of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland. The guidelines provide recommendations for effective practice in the management of clinical conditions where variations in practice are known to occur and where effective care may not be delivered uniformly throughout Scotland. SIGN guidelines are derived from a systematic review of the scientific evidence, and are therefore less susceptible to bias in their conclusions and recommendations.

Scottish Patient Safety Programme
The Scottish Patient Safety Programme is being co-ordinated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland that directly promotes patient safety within NHSScotland. One of Healthcare Improvement Scotlands' key priorities is the support of clinical governance.

Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS)
SCSWIS came into operation on 1 April 2011 as a new unified independent scrutiny and improvement body for care and children’s services. It is responsible for regulating and inspecting care services, and carrying out social work and child protection inspections. The services regulated are provided by a range of organisations – local authorities, individuals, businesses, charities and voluntary organisations. Through this work SCSWIS also has a significant part to play in improving services for adults and children across Scotland. One of the bodies which the SCSWIS supersedes is the Care Commission.

NHS Scotland: Clinical governance - learning to improve. What are the national drivers for clinical governance?
This is part of a learning resource on clinical governance in Scotland. This section outlines responsibilities for quality at government level.

EHealth
The eHealth Directorate is part of the Scottish Government Health Department. The scope of eHealth includes all IT systems, information and records management, process change and skills development required for healthcare delivery, including supporting infrastructure and business systems. The National eHealth Programme is responsible for the governance of national projects and programmes. These projects are described on the eHealth website.

Key national agencies for all the UK countries found in the themed areas of the website:

Please also visit the different themes which appear in the left hand menu and are highlighted on the clinical governance resource homepage for a wider range of resources specific to that theme. For example, quality improvement.