Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch

What Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch does

HSSIB (Health Services Safety Investigations Body) is a fully independent arm's length body of the UK Department of Health and Social Care that investigates patient safety concerns across England to improve NHS care at a national level. Operating as the successor to the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), the organisation was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Farnborough. Its core service is the conduct of professional safety investigations into healthcare delivery in both NHS and independent sector settings, with the explicit methodological principle that investigations do not apportion blame or liability to individuals or organisations. Information shared with the body is confidential and protected by law, enabling open disclosure from clinicians, patients, and families.

The organisation's deliverables include national-level investigation reports covering topics such as online prescribing safety, regional care pathways, electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA), and medication-related harm. It also operates the 'Building investigation excellence' education programme, a strategic initiative to strengthen healthcare investigation capability across NHS England. Distribution channels are primarily public-facing (website, newsletters, social media on LinkedIn, Bluesky, and YouTube) supplemented by direct engagement with NHS trusts and healthcare organisations.

HSSIB operates on a non-commercial funding model, receiving statutory grant-in-aid from the Department of Health and Social Care. It does not operate a pricing model and serves a single ultimate funder (the UK government) and a single principal user community (NHS trusts, independent sector providers, and the patients and staff involved in or reporting on care). No revenue figure is publicly disclosed; the entity employs between 251 and 500 staff and has no private equity, venture, or external institutional investment.

Name

Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch

Legal name

Health Services Safety Investigations Body

Website

https://hsib.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

HSSIB is a UK government arm's length body that conducts independent, no-blame patient safety investigations across NHS England and publishes national reports and education programmes to improve healthcare safety.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Patient Safety Investigation Services

NAICS

Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities (922)

SIC

Services-Health Services (8000)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYBPADAIAE

Health Systems Strengthening & Universal Health Coverage (UHC)

Business & Public Services/International Organizations & Development/Global Health & Population Programs

SECONDARYHLAJABAA

Notifiable Disease Reporting & Case Investigation

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Public Health, Government & Regulators/Disease Surveillance, Epidemiology & Outbreak Response

SECONDARYEDAGANAI

Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) Training

Education/Educational Publishing & Learning Content/Professional Development & Training Materials

Keywords

• Patient safety investigations
• Healthcare safety
• NHS safety investigations
• Safety investigation services
• Healthcare risk analysis

Headquarters

HQ city

Farnborough

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

HSSIB conducts independent national-level investigations into patient safety concerns across NHS and independent sector healthcare in England, producing published investigation reports and safety recommendations without attributing blame or liability. It also delivers an education programme ('Building investigation excellence') to strengthen healthcare investigation capability across the NHS.

Product overview

HSSIB operates as a single unified service providing national-level patient safety investigations in England. The core offering consists of investigation reports covering various healthcare safety concerns (online prescribing, regional care pathways, electronic medicines administration), supported by an education programme focused on building investigation excellence across the NHS. All investigations are conducted independently without attributing blame and are protected by legal confidentiality provisions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Patient Safety Investigations National-level investigations into patient safety concerns across England covering both NHS and independent sector healthcare services, aimed at improving care without attributing blame or liability to individuals or organisations. Intended audience is the NHS, healthcare providers, regulators, patients and families.
• Online Prescribing Investigation Report Published investigation report on online prescribing challenges and opportunities to improve patient safety, including recommendations on improving how information is shared between NHS and independent prescribers. Intended for NHS, independent prescribers, online healthcare providers, and policy makers.
• Patient Safety Across Regional Care Pathways Learning Report Learning report from an HSSIB investigation pilot into patient safety across redesigned regional care pathways, highlighting risks from unclear roles, limited oversight, and inconsistent information sharing between NHS organisations. Intended for NHS trusts and integrated care system leaders.
• Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) Procurement and Safety Learning Report Fourth HSSIB investigation report on medication-related harm, focused on procurement and safety learning for electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) systems in acute hospitals, addressing unwarranted variation in software design, procurement and regulation that could increase medication-related harm. Intended for NHS acute trusts and digital/IT procurement leaders.
• Building Investigation Excellence Education Programme Strategy, resources and education programme to strengthen the capability of healthcare investigations across the NHS in England, supporting investigators to carry out high-quality investigations that drive improvements in patient safety. Intended for NHS healthcare investigators and patient safety professionals.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Others

• Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB): UK government body that independently investigates civil aviation accidents using a no-blame, safety-recommendations-only model. Provides the conceptual template for HSSIB's no-blame statutory investigation approach in a different safety-critical domain.

Broad incumbents

• NHS England Patient Safety Team: Operates the national Learn From Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service and runs the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF). Overlaps directly with HSSIB on systemic patient safety improvement across NHS providers in England.
• Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman: Independent UK body that investigates complaints about the NHS. Operates within the same statutory independent-investigation framework as HSSIB and addresses patient harm in the NHS, though through complaints rather than proactive safety investigations.
• General Medical Council: The independent regulator of doctors in the UK. While focused on individual practitioner fitness to practise, it operates in the same UK statutory healthcare oversight landscape as HSSIB and addresses risks to patient safety in clinical practice.
• Care Quality Commission: The independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. CQC is the most directly comparable UK statutory body operating in the same patient safety oversight space, with national jurisdiction and regulatory authority analogous to HSSIB's investigative mandate.

Direct peers

• National Guardian's Office (Freedom to Speak Up): Independent office that supports NHS workers to speak up about patient safety concerns. Shares HSSIB's cultural premise that open, non-punitive reporting is essential to improving patient safety, and operates within the same NHS England statutory framework.
• Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership: Promotes improvement in healthcare quality through commissioned clinical audit programmes and quality improvement initiatives across the UK. Operates in a closely adjacent space of independent healthcare quality oversight and improvement that overlaps with HSSIB's mission.

Regional players

• NHS Wales: Operates patient safety oversight functions within the Welsh NHS. A regional peer to HSSIB given that healthcare is devolved in Wales and HSSIB's mandate does not extend there, with NHS Wales performing an analogous oversight role for Welsh patients.
• Healthcare Improvement Scotland: Scotland's national healthcare improvement and scrutiny body, performing a comparable role to HSSIB but for the Scottish NHS. Closely mirrors HSSIB's mandate of independent review and improvement of patient safety and care quality at a national level.

Emerging players

• Patient Safety Learning: Charitable organisation dedicated to improving patient safety through sharing learning and advocating for systemic change. Operates in the same patient safety improvement space as HSSIB but as a non-statutory, advocacy-driven body.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@theHSSIB
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/healthcare-safety-investigation-branch
• Xx.com/hsib_org

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch