Statutory duty of candour for health and adult social care providers
Applies to England
Detail of outcome
From October 2014, subject to parliamentary approval, NHS providers will be required to comply with the duty of candour. Meaning providers must be open and transparent with service users about their care and treatment, including when it goes wrong.
The duty is being introduced as part of the fundamental standard requirements for all providers. It will apply to all NHS trusts, foundation trusts and special health authorities from October and the government plans to implement the standards for all other providers by April 2015, subject to parliamentary approval.
We used the responses to this consultation to improve the drafting of the duty of candour regulation. The consultation response document explains the changes in more detail.
Original consultation
Consultation description
The duty of candour will require all health and adult social care providers registered with CQC to be open with people when things go wrong. The regulations would impose a specific and detailed duty of candour on all providers where any harm to a service user from their care or treatment is above a certain harm-threshold.
The duty of candour will be a legal requirement and CQC will be able to take enforcement action when it finds breaches.
This consultation:
- sets out what we are proposing
- includes a draft of the regulations that will introduce the duty of candour
- asks about the impact of our proposals and the impact of the new regulations on providers
Documents
Updates to this page
Last updated 7 July 2014 + show all updates
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Added the government response to the consultation on the duty of candour
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First published.