Definition
PSIRF training means the knowledge and skills NHS England's patient safety incident response standards expect of people involved in responding to incidents: a foundation from the NHS patient safety syllabus for everyone, and role-specific training for learning response leads, engagement leads and those in oversight roles.
Source: NHS England patient safety incident response standards, August 2022 · Last reviewed 6 July 2026
Who needs what
| Role | Expected training |
|---|---|
| All staff | Patient safety syllabus level 1, Essentials of patient safety |
| Boards and senior leaders | The level 1 senior leadership session, plus PSIRF oversight training where they hold oversight roles |
| Learning response leads | Syllabus levels 1 and 2, plus training in systems-based response methods and the specific tools they facilitate |
| Engagement leads | Training in compassionately engaging and involving those affected by incidents |
| Oversight roles | Syllabus levels 1 and 2, plus PSIRF-specific oversight training covering the objectives in the response standards |
The patient safety syllabus
The NHS patient safety syllabus has five levels that build on each other. The first two are available free through the e-learning for healthcare hub (e-lfh.org.uk) and form the base the response standards refer to.
Level 1, Essentials of patient safety, is the starting point that all NHS staff are encouraged to complete, with an additional session written for boards and senior leadership teams. Level 2, Access to practice, goes deeper across two sessions: the first covers systems thinking and risk expertise, the second human factors and safety culture. Those four topics are not academic garnish; they are the working assumptions behind every learning response in the toolkit. The higher syllabus levels support people making patient safety a specialism, including patient safety specialists.
Training for response roles
The response standards are most specific about the people who run responses. Learning response leads need to be trained in the systems-based methods they use, whether that is facilitating an after action review or leading a full patient safety incident investigation; investigation training is more substantial than facilitation training, which is one reason organisations keep a small pool of trained investigators rather than training everyone. Engagement leads need training in working with patients, families and staff after an incident, reflecting the framework's first aim. People in oversight roles need the level 1 and 2 base plus oversight-specific training, so that scrutiny of responses is informed rather than procedural.
NHS England does not run a single mandatory PSIRF course for these roles. Organisations source training that covers the learning objectives in the response standards, from national programmes, universities or commercial providers [VERIFY: whether NHS England has since specified or accredited particular PSIRF training providers].
Keeping skills current
The standards treat capability as ongoing rather than a certificate. People in response and oversight roles are expected to maintain continuous professional development in incident response and to network with peers at least annually to build and keep their expertise. In practice most organisations fold this into the patient safety specialist's remit, alongside the transition work described on the implementation page.