Background to launch...

Over recent years, research from various sources has repeatedly confirmed two things. The quality of health and social care information varies widely and people can feel both overwhelmed by the huge volume of information on offer and unsure about what sources they can trust.

All public services should put the person who uses them at their heart. This applies to health and social care because all care is personal.
Department of Health, 2006
Your Health, Your Care, Your Say

Research has shown that:

 

  • 77% of people have looked up some form of health or social care information in the past 12 months1
  • 75% find it hard to work out whether information is trustworthy or not1
  • 88% felt a certification scheme covering health and social information would be a good idea1
  • 87% claimed it would make them trust the information more1
  • 78% stated that they would only use, or would show a preference for, information from organisations certified by the scheme1
  • around one-fifth of patients feel they are given insufficient information about their treatment and care, with only two-fifths of patients feeling they have all the information they need for their recovery when they leave hospital2
  • when healthcare professionals give patients information, around a third of them feel that it is inconsistent2
  • if users can see that a piece of information has a clear logo of accreditation, it will greatly strengthen their trust in the information, and the whole process3
  • patients and service users, and their families and carers, need timely, personalised help to navigate the routes to relevant information. They should not be abandoned at the point of diagnosis or when moving across organisational boundaries (for example, from health into social care) or when relocating geographically4

 

1. Department of Health, TNS omnibus survey, March 2007
2. Healthcare Commission, 2007 Patient Survey
3. Department of Health, Evaluation of Information Prescriptors, August 2008
4. Picker Institute, 2006

 

How was The Information Standard developed?

 

It has been developed by engaging with accreditation experts, organisations involved in standards development and a representative group of information producers (organisations producing health and social care information for the public).

A draft standard was tested with 39 information producers from public, private and voluntary sectors and has been refined to produce a robust and workable standard. The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has also been involved in this process.
 
The development of the scheme also considered the experience of other schemes which look at individual pieces of information (e.g. Crystal Mark).  The process-based approach had wide support from stakeholders and was felt to be the best and most practical way of establishing a scheme with a long life.