Learning, improvement and innovation: requires improvement

W4. How does the service continuously learn, improve, innovate and ensure sustainability?

Characteristics of a service we would rate requires improvement in this area

Quality assurance arrangements are not always applied consistently or are ineffective. Improvements are not always identified. Action to introduce improvements can be absent, reactive, focused on the short term or not reviewed. Information needs are not regularly reviewed.

Investigations sometimes lack the full rigour needed and the learning is applied inconsistently; evidence that improvements have been embedded might be inconclusive or not sustainable.