I was at a meeting of providers last week and there seemed to be a lot of concern about the new Duty of Candour regulations. Should I be concerned? – Celia

Answered by Sheila Scott

Dear Celia,

The Duty of Candour Regulations are certainly very different to anything the sector has seen before. It is important to keep in mind that the Duty of Candour regulations are being introduced as a direct result of failures in the Health Service and Adult Social Care has been included as part of that agenda.

If you are a subscriber to the QCS system and therefore you will have the Policy and Procedure that has been issued by QCS.

This is an excellent Policy and Procedure and spells out exactly what you need to do to comply.

The key points as you will see are:

• The Duty of Candour relates to the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Regulation 20 Duty of Candour. You can read the CQC guidance here http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/regulation-20-duty-candour#full-regulation
• The regulations relate to notifiable incidents as spelled out in the regulations: http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/regulations-service-providers-and-managers

If you are concerned about the impact this could have on you then you might want to take advice from your insurers about how you should handle the detail.

Best wishes,

Sheila Scott