Resources

For Enable WA - one of Western Australia’s larger for-purpose (or not-for-profit) disability service providers - strengthening clinical governance has been an intentional, multi-year journey to embed a culture of accountability, learning, and continuous improvement across all aspects of service delivery. Their work began with a simple recognition: delivering safe, high-quality services depends as much on culture as it does on systems. 

Patient Safety and Quality, Clinical Excellence Queensland (CEQ), in collaboration with the Australasian Institute of Clinical Governance (AICG), has launched a new workshop to strengthen clinical governance for Queensland Hospital and Health Board Safety & Quality Committees.  

Across the health sector, one consistent message emerges from conversations with executives, board directors and regulators: clinical governance cannot succeed without a strong and aligned board–executive relationship. 

Listen for an insightful webinar, Implementing Best Care – the Western Health Clinical Governance Journey. In this session, we dived into the key elements of the Western Health Best Care program and explored how clinical governance practices have driven improvements in patient care. Our speakers shared their experiences and highlighted the core components that have contributed to the program's success.

Any leadership course will tell you that anyone can be a leader, regardless of their job title. While this is true to an extent, clinical governance leadership demands an added layer of influence — the ability to shape safety, quality, and culture across an organisation. 

Clinical governance can sometimes feel abstract - something that lives in policies, frameworks, or accreditation standards. However, at AICG, we believe that clinical governance should be operational, grounded in the day-to-day work of healthcare services.

When people talk about clinical governance frameworks, the conversation often turns to big documents, detailed diagrams, or long lists of standards. At AICG, we wanted to create a framework that is deliberately operational. It is designed so that boards, executives, clinicians, support staff, and consumers can immediately see where it fits, what it is responsible for, and how it can contribute to better outcomes.

The Seven Pillars of Clinical Governance framework outlines a comprehensive approach to delivering high-quality, safe healthcare within NHS organisations, emphasising seven interconnected domains. By integrating these pillars, healthcare organisations can align systems, practices, and culture around continuous improvement, accountability, and excellence in clinical care.

The Clinical Governance Training Package (October 2024) offers a structured, modular curriculum designed to embed clinical governance principles across NHS organisations. It covers foundational concepts—such as risk management, quality improvement, accountability, and patient safety—while also giving practical guidance on governance roles, performance measurement, and staff engagement.

This resource is designed to help General Practices and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) prepare for accreditation. However, it does a very good job of explaining how to build and apply a clinical governance framework that improves safety, quality, and patient outcomes. And is very useful for anyone starting out in clinical governance.