The Assessible Information standard- a local picture in Walsall
Healthwatch Walsall is the independent voice of the public in health and social care in Walsall. Healthwatch Walsall collects feedback from the public in Walsall about their experiences of using health and social care services and use that feedback to work with service providers and commissioners to find ways to improve services. One of the ways that we collect feedback is to carry out projects that reflect the priorities of the public and that focus on particular services, conditions or parts of the community.
On this occasion we carried out a project looking at the Accessible Information Standard to ensure it meets the needs of people with sensory impairment.
Guidance from NHS England states:
‘From 1 August 2016 onwards, all organisations that provide NHS care and/or publicly-funded adult social care are legally required to follow the Accessible Information Standard.’
‘The Standard sets out a specific, consistent approach to identifying, recording, flagging, sharing and meeting the information and communication support needs of patients, service users, carers and parents with a disability, impairment or sensory loss.’
For more information around the standards in various formats please visit the NHS England Website, Link: http://tinyurl.com/44tbenru
We wanted a ‘local picture’ of how people with disabilities and/or sensory impairments are communicated with by Walsall health and social care services. We did this by listening to local people to find out if health and care services are communicating with them in a way they can understand and to ensure it is meeting their needs. Are people in Walsall happy with the way they are being communicated with?
We found that whilst the majority of people with sensory loss or impairment were provided with information in a way that meets their needs this was not the case for everyone.
For people with sensory loss or impairment who are not being communicated with in the format required, there is an impact on them being able to access services and their health.
This report will be shared with health and social care service providers and the Walsall public.
the full report can be found here.
This report is written in a format that can also be accessed through ‘Read Aloud’ by using Microsoft Word.