The Information Standard
About the Information Standard
The Information Standard is a new certification scheme for health and social care information in England (www.theinformationstandard.org). The quality mark provides an easy way to identify trusted, quality information. To qualify, organisations must meet rigorous quality standards.
The Standard will evaluate our processes as well as our individual pieces of information and, in that respect, is similar to schemes such as Fairtrade. If you see the quality mark you can be confident that the information comes from a reliable source.
The benefits:
- Allows patients to distinguish quality information they can trust.
- Provides access to quality assured information; so that patients can be more involved in self-management of on-going conditions.
- Allows patients to be better informed, so they can make effective decisions on their care.
- Gives healthcare professionals confidence in referring to or handing out information.
- Gives patients, their families and carers, quality sources of information in circumstances where this is not provided by the healthcare provider at the point of diagnosis or due to moving across services (for example, from health into social care) or when relocating geographically.
- The needs and requirements of the end user are a priority in the development of materials.
- Requirements are kept under review, leading to more accessible materials.