Making clinical governance happen at team level: the Dorset experience

Clinical governance is at the heart of the drive to improve the quality of patient care in the National Health Service. National targets, the National Service Frameworks and NICE Guidance are providing a top‐down mechanism to deliver this improved care. Improved patient care will not happen, however, without the active and enthusiastic participation of clinicians and clinical teams. This article sets out the mechanism that Dorset Healthcare NHS Trust, a specialist mental health and learning disability trust, has established to foster and develop the involvement of clinical teams in clinical governance. The article describes the development of team‐based clinical governance portfolios and sets out how they have been used to focus clinical teams on clinical governance activities.