Data sharing initiatives
Accessible Information Standard
Published by
NHS England
Sector
Health and social care
Information created by
The Person
The Accessible Information Standard (AIS) aims to make sure that people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss get appropriate information and communication support from NHS and adult social care services.
It places five obligations on health and social care providers:
to ask people about their communication and reasonable adjustment needs
to record that information in a structured way
to display it prominently on their systems, so any member of staff accessing the person's record will be made aware of it
with the person's consent, to share it with other health and care providers
to act on it in the way they communicate with the person.
The NHS England website states that "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." However, there doesn't appear to be any clear and consistent way for the standard to be enforced or monitored.
It's also unclear whether the standard applies to adult social care services in local authorities (except where they provide a service directly, e.g. by managing a residential home.) The standard does refer to "Commissioners of... publicly-funded adult social care", who should monitor it through contracts, frameworks and performance management initiatives, but there's no reference to the direct services a local authority provides, such as information and advice, assessment, brokerage, review, and in many cases specific services like Technology Enhanced Living.
Healthwatch is currently running a campaign entitled "Your Care Your Way" to improve more effective implementation of the AIS.