Our Ending Corridor Care resources and guidance share powerful testimony that reveals the true scale and depth of the corridor care crisis. In addition, our 2025-member survey report, On the Frontline of the UK’s Corridor Care Crisis, demonstrates the devastating impact on patients and staff and provides clear evidence of the widespread nature of corridor care across the UK.

We are committed to calling out and holding the UK government to account. We ask the nursing workforce to call out unsafe, undignified, and unacceptable practices every time they happen. Together, we can eradicate corridor care.

National investigation into corridor care

Our campaign to end corridor care and your powerful testimony led to the Health Services Safety Investigations Body launching a formal investigation into its shocking scale and impact. It has recently published its report. Become a safe staffing champion to help us make safe staffing a reality.

It is fundamental that there are enough registered nurses present to deliver care. Lower registered nurse staffing levels are associated with higher risks to patients and poorer quality care. Read our position statement on Registered nurse staffing levels for patient safety, care quality and cost effectiveness.

We expect all employers, regardless of sector, to have developed robust workforce plans, in line with the RCN’s Nursing Workforce Standards, considering the nature of the role, patient/service user need, service demand and skill mix.

These standards provide a roadmap for designing a workforce that can offer patients the quality of care they deserve. Setting out what must happen within workplaces for the nursing workforce to deliver expert, patient-centred care.

Sign up to be a standards champion be part of the network of Standards Champions who support others, promote best practice, and work with organisations to implement the Standards in practice.

Our Raising Concerns Toolkit covers all the essentials to help you sound the alarm if you feel patient safety, or your own safety, is being compromised. Raising a concern is about safeguarding and protecting, as well as learning from a situation and making improvements.

NMC registrants also have regulatory obligations to “act without delay if you believe that there is a risk to patient safety or public protection” (NMC, 2018a).

We acknowledge that reporting an incident is not always an easy thing to do, but it is always the right thing to do and any concerns, including where being asked to practise beyond role, experience and training and any/or risks to patient or staff safety, must be documented in the incident reporting system as a priority. Read our RCN Position on Incident Reporting.

The Principles of Nursing apply to the entire nursing workforce. The principles describe what everyone, from the nursing workforce to people and populations, can expect from nursing to deliver safe and effective nursing care. They cover the aspects of behaviour, attitude and approach that underpin good care and they are mapped to and complement the NMC Code.

We support the health, safety and wellbeing of RCN members across the UK by campaigning and influencing for sustained improvements to the working environment of our members. This is crucial when it comes to ensuring their health, safety and wellbeing is seen as a priority by employers, regulators and UK governments.

UK

• CHFG Clinical Human Factors Group: A charity working to make health care safer.
• Introduction to human factors - HSE: Reducing error and influencing behaviour (HSG48) is the key document in understanding HSE's approach to human factors.
• Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership: Leading expertise in quality improvement and clinical audit. Providing strategic quality improvement support to embed whole-system approaches.
• The Health Foundation: Quality improvement made simple. What everyone should know about health care quality improvement.
• World Health Organization: Safe surgery: Tool and Resources. Tools and resources from the World Health Organization, designed to support countries and health care teams in improving quality, safety and effectiveness of health services.

England

• Care 4 Quality: Care 4 Quality supports adult social care providers through service audits and conducts mock inspections.
• NHS England: Safety culture: learning from best practice.This document captures what high‑performing NHS organisations have done to build and sustain a strong patient safety culture.
• NHS England: The NHS Patient Safety Strategy. Describes how the NHS will continuously improve patient safety, building on the foundations of a safer culture and safer systems.

Northern Ireland

• Department of Health: Governance in health and social care. Guidance on how organisations should manage their businesses, determine strategy and achieve objectives.
• Department of Health: Safety and quality. Policy and Guidance for Improving the Safety and Quality of Health and Social Care Services.
• Patient Safety Learning: ‘Being open’ Framework and Duty of Candour in Northern Ireland: Consultation response.
• Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA): An independent body that monitors and inspects the availability and quality of health and social care services in Northern Ireland.

Scotland

• Healthcare Improvement Scotland: The national improvement agency for health and social care in Scotland.
• NHS Education for Scotland: Human factors and ergonomics. Responsible for developing and delivering health care education and training for the NHS, health and social care sector and other public bodies. 
• Scottish Government: NHS Scotland - blueprint for good governance: second edition. Shares the latest thinking on health care governance. Including definitions of 'good governance, active governance and collaborative governance'.
• TURAS Learn: Patient Safety Zone. Provides information and resources to support health care workers with experience at all levels to develop their knowledge and understanding of patient safety issues.

Wales

• NHS Wales Digital Health and Care: Patient safety. Dedicated to ensuring the highest standards of care and safety for patients using digital solutions.
• NHS Wales Performance and Improvement: Quality, Safety and Improvement. Works with NHS Wales, Welsh Government, and partners to help deliver the highest‑quality health and care system for Wales.
• Public Health Wales: Clinical Governance Framework (PDF). Supports the introduction and compliance with the Health and Social Care Act (Quality & Engagement) (Wales) Act (2020).
• Welsh Government: Patient safety. Statistics and research series: Data based on incidents reported by NHS providers to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS).
• Welsh Government: Patient safety incident reporting and management (WHC/2023/017). Policy on patient safety and incident reporting and management.