aspect of the Trust's care at any time. Pals' staff and forum members will also have
access to the new NHS Leadership Centre's programmes.
11.9.6 Lifelong learning
Delivering quality standards will very much depend on three elements, which are
the setting up of proper clinical governance, the establishment and maintenance of
lifelong learning and ongoing professional self-regulation. Lifelong learning is an
investment in quality that underpins clinical governance, is important to the
recruitment and retention of well-trained professionals and has to meet the needs
of both health professionals and the NHS. The NHS Human Resources Strategy has
addressed suggestions of how this will be achieved in order to provide the
appropriately trained staff to give the best services and quality of care to patients. A
specially earmarked modernisation fund will be used to provide the training and
development that staff need to renew and enhance their skills for the future. The
NHS will be aiming to recruit and retain a quality workforce which has the
capacity, skills, diversity and flexibility to meet the needs of the service.
11.9.7 Professional self-regulation
Health and social care professionals currently set standards for professional
practice but usually on a uniprofessional basis. This needs to move towards
sharing best practice and working on a multidisciplinary basis through integrated
care. This would provide a mechanism for ensuring the essential element of pro-
fessional self-regulation in the delivery of quality patient services, with professions
being openly accountable for the standards and their enforcement. This would
certainly start to address the challenge of the aims of the White Paper in terms of
trying to strengthen and modernise, and to restore public confidence in health and
social care. Clinical audit has an important role in professional self-regulation. It
enables clinicians to hold a mirror to their everyday work and through discussion
with peers and guidance from their professional bodies, make any relevant
changes.
For this reason the various professional bodies are increasingly requiring that
clinical audit is a key component of all specialist training and are encouraging their
members to continue such practice beyond their training. Health commissioners
and NHS Trusts also need to encourage and support clinicians to include audit in
their professional self-regulation and continuing educational development pro-
grammes. This includes ensuring that adequate resources, including protected
time and support, are available. It also includes sharing the information and
implications of clinical audit studies, which should become integrated into the
clinical risk and clinical governance strategies in ensuring that changes do occur
and lessons are learned and shared throughout the health care system.
11.9.8 Clinical audit
Clinical audit is a crucial tool for ensuring improvements in the quality of patient
care. One of the key components of clinical governance is for all clinicians to
236 Nursing Law and Ethics