Accessible Information: Specification
Published: 03 July 2015
SCCI1605 Accessible Information – the ‘Accessible Information Standard’ – directs and defines a specific, consistent approach to identifying, recording, flagging, sharing and meeting the information and communication support needs of patients, service users, carers and parents, where those needs relate to a disability, impairment or sensory loss.
The Standard applies to service providers across the NHS and adult social care system, and effective implementation will require such organisations to make changes to policy, procedure, human behaviour and, where applicable, electronic systems. Commissioners of NHS and publicly-funded adult social care must also have regard to this standard, in so much as they must ensure that contracts, frameworks and performance-management arrangements with provider bodies enable and promote the Standard’s requirements.
Successful implementation will lead to improved outcomes and experiences, and the provision of safer and more personalised care and services to those individuals who come within the Standard’s scope.
The scope of the Standard is significant and so is its intended impact. It is unashamedly ambitious in seeking to set the framework and provide clear direction for a dramatic improvement in the ability of the NHS and adult social care system to meet the information and communication support needs of disabled people. Applicable organisations have a legal duty to follow this standard; however, the moral and ethical imperative in this case is also compelling.
Significant support to enable effective, efficient implementation is to be made available to organisations, as outlined in the Implementation Plan, along with detailed Implementation Guidance. The Standard allows for flexibility in implementation approaches, subject to successful achievement of the stated requirements and outcomes.