A practical safety culture framework helping Health and Social Care teams across Northern Ireland understand, talk about, and improve the human factors behind safe, compassionate care.
Being Human sets out what good safety culture looks like across Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland — care that's safe and compassionate, open and fair, and always learning. Rather than ticking boxes, it puts relationships at the centre: between staff, patients and families, as the real foundation of safe, high-quality care.
Each domain sets out clear expectations and practical indicators — covering the systems, behaviours and outcomes that show a good safety culture in practice, brought to life with real case studies and examples of both good practice and what to avoid.
Putting safety and the wellbeing of staff at the heart of every decision.
Treating colleagues, patients and families with humanity in every interaction.
Encouraging teams to ask questions, speak up, and keep learning.
A short overview covers what Being Human sets out to achieve and how the three domains work in practice — read this first, or go straight to the full Framework document below.
Implementation of the Being Human Framework is supported by a suite of practical guidance documents and resources designed to help organisations, teams and individuals apply the principles in their day-to-day work.
These resources are currently hosted on the ECHO Moodle platform, where they are being reviewed and finalised to ensure they are accessible, relevant and aligned to the needs of the Health and Social Care system.
Arrangements for wider access are being developed. When full access becomes available, this will be communicated through this page. Updates will also be shared through your Trust's Being Human Champion Network.
Being Human is a learning and improvement framework provided for guidance. It does not currently carry formal accreditation.