What we achieved in year 1 (2025 to 2026)
The first year of the Medicines Safety Improvement Programme (MedSIP) focused on bringing partners together across Coventry and Warwickshire to better understand the challenges people with a learning disability face when prescribed long-term psychotropic medicines. Working across health, social care and community services, we established the foundations needed to deliver meaningful and sustainable improvement across the system.
Building a strong partnership
We created a Coventry and Warwickshire-wide MedSIP collaborative, bringing together clinicians, pharmacists, social care professionals, system leaders, patients and carers to develop a shared approach to medicines safety and optimisation. This included establishing governance arrangements, executive sponsorship, and a dedicated data subgroup to support delivery and evaluation.
Listening and learning
To understand the experiences of patients, carers and professionals, we undertook extensive engagement across the Integrated Care System (ICS). This included system mapping, stakeholder interviews and collaborative workshops that explored current pathways, identified challenges and highlighted opportunities for improvement. More than 55 improvement ideas were generated through this work, helping to shape the programme's future direction.
Action planning pledges
At the Coventry and Warwickshire-wide action planning workshop, partners from health, social care, pharmacy and community services developed a series of pledges. These focused on reducing harm from psychotropic medicines, strengthening multidisciplinary working, improving medication reviews, enhancing community support and promoting earlier intervention.
Developing a shared vision
Together with partners, we developed a shared vision for improving medicines use for people with a learning disability. The vision promotes safe, person-centred care, ensuring individuals receive the right treatment at the right time, at the lowest effective dose, while reducing unnecessary side effects and medicines-related harm. Regular medication reviews, shared decision-making and multidisciplinary working are central to this approach.
Our vision
We want people with a learning disability in Coventry and Warwickshire to live their best life and feel well.
Our vision is to ensure people with a learning disability who require medication, will receive this in a safe, person-centred approach. We want the right treatment, at the right time, and at the lowest effective dose. We are committed to reducing harm and minimising side effects. We aim to embed regular medication reviews, ensuring medicines continue to provide meaningful benefit and are optimised or indeed stopped when no longer needed.
This approach is holistic and multidisciplinary, bringing together a range of healthcare professionals to support both patients and practitioners. This will enable shared decision-making and consistent, high-quality care for our patients.
Identifying priorities for improvement
Through engagement with professionals, several priority areas for improvement were identified across Coventry and Warwickshire.
These include:
- standardising and improving Health Action Plans
- delivering high-quality medicines reviews in primary care
- increasing pharmacist involvement in Care, Education and Treatment Reviews (CETRs)
- strengthening communication between health and social care teams through multidisciplinary working
Creating the foundations for change
By the end of year 1, the programme had moved from understanding the system to developing a clear plan for action. The work completed during the first year has provided a strong foundation for testing and implementing improvements that will help people with a learning disability receive safer, more effective and more personalised medicines care across Coventry and Warwickshire.
