New Ways of Working and the issue of responsibility and accountability

The issue of responsibility and accountability is central to the development of New Ways of Working (NWW), and has also been central to the concerns that members of some professions have expressed about it. Clarity about who is responsible for what, and who is accountable to whom, is particularly important when there are new types of worker roles in the team, and when existing workers are working in a different way or extending their role. NWW emphasises the appropriate distribution of responsibility and team decision-making, which together are designed to promote patient safety. Distributing responsibility and accountability does not mean diluting or diffusing it; this model supports all workers being responsible for the standards of their own practice, and moves away from the ill-defined, and perhaps unrealistic, notion of the doctor being ultimately responsible for all patients. The National Workforce Programme has worked with a wide range of stakeholders, including professional regulators and employers, to produce guidance on responsibility and accountability. This guidance is currently in draft form and will be published on the New Ways of Working website (www.newwaysofworking.org.uk) as soon as the final version is published.