Patient Safety Partner (Volunteer)

Job overview

Volunteer Role | Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) | Hours per month 8 - 10

Join Us in Shaping Safer Care at Sheffield Children’s!

We’re rolling out an exciting initiative at Sheffield Children's, the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF). Designed to strengthen how we learn from patient safety incidents and improve care for children and young people.

At the heart of this work is the Patient Safety Partner (PSP) role. PSPs bring powerful lived experience and fresh perspectives, working alongside senior leaders and clinical teams to influence real change across the organisation.

We’re Looking for Two Inspiring Patient Safety Partners

• One young person (16+) PSP
• One adult PSP

No specialist background is needed—just your insight, passion, and willingness to help shape safer care. We’ll tailor the role to your strengths and comfort level, ensuring your involvement feels right for you.

Your Voice Can Spark Change

If you want to make a meaningful difference for children, young people and families, we’d love you to be part of this journey.

Main duties of the job

What You’ll Do as a Patient Safety Partner

As this is a brand‑new role, it’s designed to grow and evolve with you. Your insights, experiences and ideas will help shape how the role develops and how we continue to improve patient safety across Sheffield Children’s. Below are the main areas you may be involved in:

• Bring the family voice into safety improvementsWork with care groups and governance leads so that action plans from patient safety investigations
• Join key safety conversationsAttend meetings where safety issues are reviewed and help ensure the patient perspective is included
• Shape improvement work across teamsSupport teams to embed patient and family experience into projects
• Listen, learn and share what mattersTalk with patients, families and colleagues to understand what is working well and where improvements could be made
• Help us recognise strengthsHighlight examples of great practice
• Support how we learn from incidentsWork with teams to strengthen how we reflect and learn after a safety incident
• Review investigation reportsRead patient safety investigation reports and provide feedback from a family and lived‑experience point of view
• Support colleague trainingContribute to patient safety training sessions to help colleagues
• Take part in recruitmentJoin interview panels for patient safety roles to ensure we appoint people who value the patient voice

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Sheffield Children’s is trusted to deliver the very best in clinical care, transformative research and accessible community health. Whether it’s everyday worries, complex conditions or life‑saving interventions, we are here for every child and young person across Sheffield, South Yorkshire and increasingly beyond.

In 2024, we launched our Quality Promise, which sets out what children, young people and families should expect from us—whenever and however they receive care.

The Quality Promise was created by listening closely to personal stories and feedback, ensuring it truly reflects what matters most to children, young people and their families. At its heart is our commitment to delivering safe, kind and outstanding care.

The Patient Safety Partner role is an important part of helping us uphold this promise. By bringing lived experience and the patient voice directly into our work, PSPs strengthen our relationship with children, young people and families and help us become an even stronger, more responsive organisation.