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Duty of Candour

There are 3 types of Duty of Candour, two are optional/Best Practice, and one requires reporting

Principles

Basic Principles
Open disclosure
Statutory Vs Professional
Professional codes of conduct
Duty of candour - Best Practice


Statutory duty

Statutory requirements

The core purpose of Duty of Candour
Notifiable Incident – criteria
Notifiable safety incident – Health Service Body
Notifiable safety incident – Other Services
Definition of Harm
Reporting an Incident

  • The obligations associated with the statutory duty of candour are contained in regulation 20 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
  • It is imposed on the organisation, not on individuals and it is a criminal offence if you don't comply.

The key principles:

  1. Care organisations have a general duty to act in an open and transparent way in relation to care provided to persons. This means that an open and honest culture must exist throughout an organisation.
  2. The statutory duty applies to organisations, not individuals, though it is clear from CQC guidance that it is expected that an organisation's staff cooperate with it to ensure the obligation is met.
  3. As soon as is reasonably practicable after a notifiable care safety incident occurs, the organisation must tell the person (or their representative) about it in person.
  4. The organisation has to give the person a full explanation of what is known at the time, including what further enquiries will be carried out. Organisations must also provide an apology and keep a written record of the notification to the person.
  5. A notifiable safety incident has a specific statutory meaning
  6. There is a statutory duty to provide reasonable support to the person. Reasonable support could be providing an interpreter to ensure discussions are understood, or giving emotional support to the person following a notifiable safety incident.
  7. Once the they have been told in person about the notifiable safety incident, the organisation must provide them with a written note of the discussion, and copies of correspondence must be kept.

 

Members of Professional Bodies

If you are a member of a professional body, this might affect you both as an individual and your organisation as a whole. You may be accountable to your body as a member and your organisation responsible to the regulatory body.