PSIRF Starter Kit
PSIRF Starter Kit · England
PSIRF templates for independent providers and care services
Keep patients, service users and staff safe by learning from every patient safety incident. Ten editable Word and Excel templates, each with a worked example, ready to use the same day.
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Safe care depends on three things. Look after the people affected. Understand what really happened. Keep learning, so care gets safer.
The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) asks providers to work this way, in proportion to their size and risk. Good patient safety is built on ordinary days, with a plan your team knows, clear roles and a fair, simple way to look at each incident and learn from it.
The PSIRF Starter Kit gives small teams in England the templates to do that. Each one comes with plain instructions and a filled-in worked example, so you can set things up before the next incident, not after it.
Who it is for
- Independent healthcare providers in England that deliver NHS-funded care under the NHS Standard Contract, where PSIRF is a contract requirement.
- Small and medium providers with one or a few sites and no patient safety team, where one person may hold several roles. For example independent hospitals and clinics, day surgery and diagnostic services, community services, hospices, and nursing homes with NHS-funded care.
- Adult social care services that do not hold an NHS Standard Contract, and providers of privately funded care, that choose to follow PSIRF principles.
The kit is written for England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use different frameworks.
What is in the kit
- Proportionality decision log (Excel log and Word decision record). Record, for each incident, the immediate safety actions, any required referral, the learning potential, the response you chose, why, and who decided.
- After action review template (Word). Run and write up a short, facilitated team discussion of what was expected, what happened and what to learn.
- Swarm huddle template (Word). Capture a quick team huddle held straight after an incident, with immediate risks and actions.
- Multidisciplinary review template (Word). Plan and record a review of past or repeated incidents with staff from several professions.
- PSII pack (Word). Decide, set up and run a patient safety incident investigation (PSII). The worksheets feed every heading of NHS England’s national PSII report template (version 1.1), which you still use for the final report.
- Engagement letter set (Word). Letters for patients and families (first letter, update, closing) and for staff (invitation, thank you and findings), with guidance on tone and timing.
- Oversight and safety action log (Excel). Track every safety action until it is checked and working, track learning responses, and give your leadership team a regular summary.
- PSIRF policy template for small providers (Word). A short policy setting out your approach, roles, training, engagement, staff support and oversight.
- Patient safety incident response plan template (Word). Set out your safety issues and planned responses, with a one-page incident profile worksheet.
- How to use this kit (Word and PDF). Set-up steps, the roles your contract requires, a timescales table showing what the law and national guidance say, the worked example traced through every template, tips, pitfalls and a glossary, plus a first-steps page for when an incident happens.
Templates 2, 3 and 4 are based on NHS England’s national tools for those methods. The wording throughout is our own.
Interactive guide
The kit also includes an interactive guide, a single file you open in your web browser. It takes you through Templates 1 to 9 screen by screen, with worked examples, short quizzes and tick lists. The quizzes are a quick self-check, not training. It works offline and saves nothing. If the guide and a template ever differ, the template wording applies.
What makes this kit different
NHS England publishes free PSIRF tools, including method guides, policy and plan templates, and the national PSII report template. You should use them, and the kit points you to each one. What the kit adds is the part a small team usually has to work out alone.
- Written for small independent providers. The templates assume a small team, where one person may hold several roles, and show how to arrange a learning response lead who was not involved and does not manage the staff involved, even when your team is small.
- One worked example, carried all the way through. Every template uses the same made-up incident: a night-time fall with a wrist fracture on a small rehabilitation unit with NHS-funded beds. One reference number follows it from the first decision to the summary for your leaders.
- Every timescale checked. Each timescale in the kit follows the law, the NHS Standard Contract or national guidance, with the source given. Where there is no national figure, the kit says so.
- The roles your contract requires. A table showing the named roles by type of provider: full-length NHS Standard Contract holders, shorter-form contract holders, council-funded adult social care, and purely private providers.
- Ready the same day. Editable Word and Excel files, with the How to use this kit guide as a PDF so you can read it first.
What is not included
- Legal, clinical or regulatory advice. The kit is general good practice.
- Training. The kit lists the training topics NHS England sets for people in PSIRF roles and points to national options. It does not provide the training.
- Sign-off from your commissioner. You still agree your policy and plan with your commissioner and your own leadership team.
- A replacement for NHS England’s national PSII report template. The PSII pack helps you do the work and fill it in.
- An investigation carried out for you.
- Specific national requirements for maternity, screening, custody and other specialist services, beyond pointers to the national guidance.
- Incident reporting software.
The engagement letters are templates to adapt. Check them with your own legal or indemnity adviser before use.
Price and download
£149, including UK VAT.
One zip file with all the Word and Excel templates, the interactive guide, and the How to use this kit guide as a PDF, so you can read it first. Your download is available straight away after payment.
One purchase covers one organisation and all its sites. Your staff may edit and adapt the templates and use them inside your organisation. You may not sell them, publish them or share them with another organisation.
Consumers have a 14-day right to cancel. You lose this right once your download starts, because at checkout you agree that it can start straight away. If a file is faulty, we will put it right or give you a refund.
Version 1.1, last checked against NHS England’s PSIRF guidance on 17 October 2026. Version 1.1 adds the interactive guide and small wording corrections. If we update the kit within 12 months of your purchase, you can download the new version free from your original download link, and we will email you to let you know.
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Try it free first
Under PSIRF you do not investigate every incident in the same way. For each patient safety incident you decide what response will help you learn and make care safer, and you record why. The free sample is Template 01, the proportionality decision log, with its instructions and worked example. Enter your email address and the download link is sent to you. We will only send you other emails if you say yes at checkout. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Questions
How is this different from NHS England’s free PSIRF tools?
NHS England’s tools are free and you should use them. This kit is written for small independent providers. It carries one worked example through every template, checks every timescale against the law and national guidance, and sets out the roles your contract requires. It points you to the national tools throughout.
We do not hold an NHS Standard Contract. Is the kit still useful?
Yes, if you choose to follow PSIRF principles. NHS England’s guidance for providers outside NHS trusts says some social care providers are keen to align with PSIRF principles and training requirements. The roles table shows what our research found for council-funded adult social care and purely private providers, and marks where a role is outside the kit’s scope. The kit is written for England only.
Will using the kit meet our PSIRF requirements?
No template can do that on its own. Using this kit does not by itself meet any contract, legal or regulatory requirement. You still agree your policy and plan with your commissioner and your leadership team, and check NHS England’s current PSIRF guidance and your commissioner’s requirements.
What happens when the national guidance changes?
Cognito reviews the kit every 12 months and whenever NHS England updates its PSIRF guidance. Each file shows its version and the date it was last checked. If we update the kit within 12 months of your purchase, you can download the new version free and we will email you.
Can Cognito help us set up PSIRF or carry out a learning response?
Yes. Cognito Consultants carries out independent patient safety incident investigations, serious incident investigations and governance reviews. We also offer outsourced governance, where we run all or part of your governance for you, and training for boards, managers and staff. To talk it through, email info@cognitoconsultants.com or book a free 30-minute call at https://calendly.com/zohaib-cognitoconsultants/30min.
General good practice, not legal or regulatory advice. Check NHS England’s current PSIRF guidance and your commissioner’s requirements. Using this kit does not by itself meet any contract, legal or regulatory requirement.
This kit is written by Cognito Consultants in our own words. It refers to NHS England’s national guidance and points you to it. It is not produced, approved or endorsed by NHS England, CQC or any other regulator.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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