Summary
England's health and social care regulator explains the NHS England Accessible Information Standard, which providers of NHS and publicly funded adult social care must have regard to, and how its assessments take the standard into account.
Key findings
- Says the standard describes how NHS and adult social care services should identify, record, flag, share, meet and review people's information and communication needs, and that all organisations providing publicly funded NHS care or adult social care, and commissioners, must have regard to it.
- Says it applies to people with information or communication needs because of a disability, impairment or sensory loss, and to their carers and family members involved in their care who have such needs themselves.
- Under the step on meeting needs, gives as examples contact by email, text message or Text Relay, information in formats people can read, a communication professional such as a British Sign Language interpreter at appointments, and support from staff to communicate, which "could include help to lip-read or use a hearing aid".
- Says the sixth step, review, was added when the standard was reviewed and updated in 2025, and that services which do not need to follow the standard must still make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.
- Says CQC considers how well services meet the standard under its responsive key question, by talking to people who use the service and to staff and, where possible, reviewing at least one person's care records. The standard is assured by commissioners, not by CQC, but CQC may take action if it finds that an organisation is not meeting accessible communication and information needs.
Limits
A regulator's summary of NHS England's standard, not the standard itself; NHS England's pages for the standard refused automated access and could not be read. The page names no listening system and sets no technical requirement. The date is the page's "last updated" date.
Read the original
www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/meeting-accessible-information-standard
Cited in
- What works in hospitals, clinics and pharmacies, where a misheard word can matter most?Partly answered
Cite this source
Care Quality Commission. Meeting the Accessible Information Standard. Care Quality Commission (guidance for providers). 10 March 2026. https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/meeting-accessible-information-standard (accessed 10 October 2026).
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