Why independent?
Health and social care information is produced by charities, private companies and organisations from the public sector including local authorities and NHS organisations. In order to avoid any potential conflicts of interest if say, the scheme were managed by an NHS body, The Information Standard is managed by an independent organisation whose mandate is simply to apply The Information Standard in an impartial way.
Who will carry out the certification?
There are currently five certification bodies authorised to carry out the actual assessment of information producers and offer certification against the standard. These certification bodies are specialists in carrying out such evaluations against standards and have been accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to confirm that they are competent to provide a certification service against the standard.
What will it cost?
Organisations that apply for certification will pay a fee. The cost of certification may vary depending on the size and complexity of the organisation. It is clear that excessive costs would be a barrier for some information producers. In the first three years, we will make subsidies available to information producers through the scheme operator to ensure that information producers are able to join the scheme.
How will the scheme be funded?
The intention in the long run is for the scheme to be self funding. In the short term – the first three years – the Department of Health will fund the scheme, including providing a subsidy for eligible organisations applying for certification. Over this period, any surplus will be reinvested. This reinvestment may support smaller specialist organisations to become certified.
The actual cost of certification will depend on the size and complexity of the organisation and the time required to assess it. There may also be costs for organisations in adapting their processes to meet the standard which will, of course, vary by how much or little they have to do to the reach the required standard.
An organisation that goes through the assessment process but fails to meet the standard would still incur the costs. To reduce this risk we have developed a ‘readiness check’ to help organisations make sure they only go through an assessment when they are confident they will meet the standard.
How long will certification last?
Certification will last for three years with check-ups at regular intervals.
How will it be policed?
The operation of the scheme will be monitored by the scheme operator. They are responsible for developing detailed rules and procedures for the scheme including mechanisms for certified organisations and the public to feed back any complaints or issues around use of The Information Standard mark by information producers.
Which types of organisation will typically join the scheme?
There is a huge number of different organisations involved in health and social care in England – some 120,000 - of these some 50,000 produce health and/or social care information. However, the bulk of information people come across is produced by a much smaller number of organisations dominated by public sector organisations and the large national charities. The standard has been developed to be flexible enough to be applied across all types of organisation and we hope that over time organisations of all types and sizes will apply.
The Information Standard scheme sits alongside Information Prescriptions and it is envisaged that eventually Information Prescriptions will be based on certified sources.
Will it cover private health information organisations, i.e. BUPA?
Yes, the scheme will be open to information producers of all type including commercial information producers.
Will the scheme cover media organisations and second hand providers of health and social care information such as BBC, Daily Mail Health etc?
The scheme only covers organisations that actually produce health and social care information. Organisations that provide information or buy information from other parties would not be able to join the scheme.
What about web portals such as Dr Foster, NetDoctor, Google, Yahoo etc or organisations providing holistic health or complementary medicine?
The Information Standard will not cover second hand/aggregators but it will be available to organisations providing holistic health or complementary medicine. The same standard will apply to these organisations as to those providing information about medical conditions such as the Alzheimer’s Society.
Information Prescriptions will also signpost people to local support that may offer help and advice outside of health and social care including welfare or money. Will these streams of information be certified?
No, The Information Standard covers health and social care information only.
How does this scheme differ to the NHS Evidence accreditation scheme being developed by NICE?
NHS Evidence will be launching an accreditation scheme for clinical and non-clinical information aimed at a professional audience. It will provide a detailed assessment of the quality of processes used to develop systematically produced statements of best practice, such as guidelines. A web portal containing approved sources will assure professionals that guidance and summarised evidence are from reliable sources. The scheme will initially apply to national bodies producing clinical and non-clinical recommendations, such as Royal Colleges and professional societies.
NHS Evidence and The Information Standard will be complementary and ensure that patients, the public and professionals have access to information of the highest quality. Both will accredit sources of information, rather than individual products, and make the results openly available. However, NHS Evidence will primarily target professionals whilst The Information Standard will primarily function to reassure patients and the public.
How does this scheme differ from the HONcode (Health on the Net)?
Whilst Health on the Net has been set up to tackle similar issues around the reliability and credibility of information, the scope is not as wide as The Information Standard. Health on the Net only certifies website information and does not cover printed materials, podcasts or any other information sources. The Information Standard covers both health and social care – the latter is not included by Health on the Net.