The aim of Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) is to promote safe and effective use of antimicrobials whilst limiting unnecessary use to safe guard their future use. AMS spans both primary and secondary care and relates across healthcare disciplines including nurses, pharmacists and podiatrists and whether prescribers or not. Antimicrobial stewardship is everybody’s business. Whilst the primary aim of AMS programmes and strategies is to reduce antimicrobial resistance, there are additional benefits to patients and healthcare systems including reduction in other antibiotic-related harms (e.g. C.difficile and vascular device-related infections), shorter hospital stay, opportunity costs related to reduction in IV administration and financial savings. An AMS programme requires information (surveillance of both quantitative and qualitative prescribing), education (to all healthcare professionals) and quality improvement initiatives to engineer change. Changing behaviour around prescribing practice is fundamental to quality improvement and is the greatest challenging to AMS teams. The success of an AMS programme is dependent on multi-disciplinary antimicrobial management teams including clinical pharmacists as well as infection specialists and engagement with clinical healthcare governance structures, local drugs and therapeutics structures and clinical management structures. An overarching national programme can support and guide local AMS strategies and teams.