At North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, we are committed to ensuring that all of our service users’ experiences of our services are positive and built around the needs of the individual, in line with our SPAR quality objectives of providing safe, personalised, accessible and recovery focused care.
Our trust values Proud to CARE (Compassionate, Approachable, Responsible, Excellent) are also very relevant to ensuring that we take the time to ensure that we meet individual needs at every stage of our contact with them, in order to best support and sustain recovery and wellbeing.
As part of this, the Trust is implementing the Accessible Information Standard which aims to make sure that people with a disability, who are our patients, service users and their carers, have access to information that they can understand and any communication support they need to help them with their care journey.
This includes making sure that people get information in different formats if they need it, such as large print, braille, embossed, easy read, via email and visual/British Sign Language (BSL) etc.
As part of the Accessible Information Standard the trust must do five things:
- Ask people if they have any information or communication needs, and find out how to meet their needs
- Record those needs in a set way on patient records
- Highlight a person’s file, so it is clear that they have information or communication needs, and clearly explain how these should be met
- Share information about a person’s needs with other Trust Teams/Departments, NHS and adult social care providers, when they have consent or permission to do so
- Act to make sure that people get information in an accessible way and communication support if they need it
The trust is also committed to meeting the foreign language needs of service users where this is required, for instance those who do not speak English or for those with limited communication or understanding of English (written and/or spoken). Service users who require language support (such as provision of translated documents or an interpreter for clinical appointments) will be offered this support free of charge.
Interpretation services and communication support – English.pdf
Interpretation services and communication support – Polish.pdf
Interpretation services and communication support – Urdu.pdf
Interpretation services and communication support – Punjabi.pdf
Information for trust staff
Further information for Trust staff in on accessing translation and interpretation support for service users can be found on the staff information desk.
useful links and leaflets
For more information/guidance around the standard, you can visit the NHS England website.
Accessible Information Standard.pdf
A short update about the approval is also available in the following formats:
- Accessible Information Standard Review Report (Word)
- Accessible Information Standard Review Report (British Sign Language video with subtitles)
- Accessible Information Standard Review Report (Easy Read)
For more information on the Accessible Information Standard, please contact:
Lesley Faux, Diversity and Inclusion Lead: Lesley.Faux@combined.nhs.uk
Veronica Emlyn, Patient Experience Lead: veronica.emlyn@combined.nhs.uk