Consultation launched on information standards for health and adult social care in England

The Department of Health & Social Care is seeking views regarding the preparation and publication of information standards as set out under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 as amended by the Health and Care Act (HCA) 2022, and as proposed to be amended by the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, which is currently before Parliament.

Changes made by the HCA 2022, once commenced, will make information standards binding such that, they must be complied with unless this requirement is waived. Those changes also require regulations to make provision about procedures for the preparation and publication of information standards (currently NHS England maintains a list of all information standards). However, the Secretary of State will continue only to be obliged to have regard to standards published by NHS England which apply to the Secretary of State and will extend them so that they may also apply to Care Quality Commission regulated private health and adult social care providers.

It is accepted that data is integral to how health and care services are planned and delivered but that our current digital systems create ‘information jams’ with time wasted by health and care professionals logging into disparate systems or searching for information in outdated formats. In the Government’s Data saves lives strategy, it committed to introduce mandatory information standards for processing of information for both private and public health and adult social care bodies to support the flow of information.

Have your say!

The consultation closes on 28 March 2024. You can respond via this online survey and review the full consultation page before responding.