This accessibility statement applies to combined.nhs.uk.
This website is run by North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. Currently this means users should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts (this will require user knowledge of the browser/device to affect how they view websites*)
- zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
- navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
- listen to most of the website using a screen reader
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
*AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- In the navigation the expandable items are ‘opened’ with the return key or the space-bar, however pressing either of these again will open the link (return key) or scroll the page (space-bar)
- Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format, please email communications@combined.nhs.uk.
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact communications@combined.nhs.uk.
We’ll get back to you 10 working days.
Enforcement procedure
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (websites and mobile applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.
Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.
Find out how to contact us here.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust is committed to making its website accessible in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
Compliance status
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to ‘the non-compliances and exemptions’ listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
We plan to add text alternatives for all images by December 2025. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
Auditing and assessing accessibility
We are investigating the viability of auditing the website to determine the priorities for accessibility standards compliance.
Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. By December 2026, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Live video
Whilst live video streams are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations, we wish to make our video content as accessible as possible for all viewers. We use YouTube to host our video content and captions are available for selection.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 16/01/2025. It was last reviewed on 16/01/2025.
