Frequently asked questions
The health and social care Concordat
The Concordat
Objectives
Implementation
Notable practice
Scheduling
Activity data
Activity contacts
Healthcare providers
Activity owners/signatories
Searching
Alerts
Unannounced activities
Reports
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The Health and social care Concordat
The Concordat
Q. What is the Concordat?
The Concordat is a voluntary agreement between bodies that regulate, audit, inspect or review elements of health and healthcare in England. These organisations are working together to streamline their activities in order to support the improvement of healthcare services for the public.
Q. Who are the signatories to the Concordat?
There are currently 21 Concordat signatories.
More information about the signatories.
Q. How can I report concerns about unnecessary burden caused by regulation and inspection?
An e-hotline (concordat@healthcarecommission.org.uk) has been developed by the Healthcare Commission, to enable healthcare providers to draw attention to any concerns they may have about the planning and handling of external inspections, audits or other types of review, at their organisation.
Objectives
Q. Are these objectives mandatory?
No. The Concordat is a voluntary agreement between organisations that regulate, audit, inspect or review elements of health and healthcare in England.
Q. Who wrote these objectives?
The objectives were developed by Concordat signatories, the Department of Health and the Cabinet Office in conjunction with the service itself.
Q. Have all these objectives been implemented?
Concordat signatories are working, both individually and collectively, to develop and deliver a programme of work to implement the objectives.
More information about progress to implement the Concordat
Q. What is the difference between full and associate membership?
Full signatories are those organisations that directly or indirectly regulate, audit or review health or social care in England and/or routinely request data from, or do inspections of NHS organisations and providers of independent healthcare.
Associate signatories are those organisations that may not directly undertake inspection, audit or review of health or social care in England but whose work is closely associated with the principles and objectives of the Concordat.
Q. Are the signatories held to account by any organisations?
The Concordat is a voluntary agreement and therefore, it is for the bodies that are inspected and those it works with to hold them to account. The Healthcare Commission has also introduced a programme of Annual Review that will help to call signatories to account for progress against the principles and objectives set out in the Concordat. The Concordat also take a keen interest in the signatories’ progress with implementing the Concordat.
Q. What is the Healthcare Commission’s role in the Concordat?
The Healthcare Commission is responsible for promoting a coordinated programme of review, audit and inspection in health and healthcare. It is fulfilling its responsibilities by leading a programme of work to implement the 10 objectives of the Concordat, in partnership with other signatories.
Implementation
Q. What is the role of the Health and Social Care Inspection Forum?
The Health and Social Care Inspection Forum is the lead governing body for Concordat implementation. It is responsible for overseeing and managing the delivery of a coordinated, targeted and proportionate programme of inspection, audit and review in health and healthcare.
Q. How does the Concordat affect frontline staff?
Over time, frontline staff will notice a difference in the way that inspections, audits and reviews are conducted. We expect that there will be much less duplication and overlap of work, which will mean that frontline staff will need to spend less time contributing to inspection, audit and review.
Notable Practice
Q. What is notable practice?
Examples of initiatives and tools developed by signatories to facilitate the implement the Concordat objectives and practices. For ease of reference, we have sorted examples of notable practice by objective and practice. Some examples of notable practice fulfil the requirements of more than one practice and, consequently, are presented more than once.
Q. Why is it that only some signatories have examples of notable practice on the site?
The Healthcare Commission is currently working with signatories to populate the notable practice areas of the website. More examples will be posted as this work is progressed.
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Scheduling
Activity data
What is an activity?
This is a collective term to describe the different types of work that signatories conduct at healthcare provider site. Not all signatories’ actually physically visit a site so this more generic term is used to encompass all types of visits, reviews, questionnaires etc.
Q. What do the different activity types mean?
We have developed the list of activities to cover all the types of activity they conduct. We have not developed a set of definitions for each type; an ‘inspection’ for the Healthcare Commission for example may be different from an ‘inspection’ for the NHS Litigation Authority.
Q. How do I look at a particular activity?
On the activity scheduling page, go to the search menu on the left of the screen and select the type of activity you wish to view from the drop down list, click search. You can also refine your list by picking other search options from the other drop down lists on the search panel.
Q. What does the ‘New’ symbol mean?
This relates to new information that is loaded on to the site. When signatories have loaded new data the ‘New’ symbol is added for 28 days so users of the site can clearly see new information.
Q. When I search for certain activity types no data is shown, why is that?
As the site is still being developed, not all types of activity have data loaded yet. New data is being added weekly.
Activity contacts
Q. I want to know more about a certain activity, whom should I contact?
If you wish to know more about an activity click on the ‘click here to email’ link as under each activity there will be a named contact. You can then email the contact regarding the activity.
Q. I want to know more about a certain organisation, whom should I contact?
If you wish to find out a bit more about a signatory, click on the Concordat Signatories’ link on either the scheduling homepage or the ‘Concordat homepage. Signatories are listed and have contact information at the bottom of their pages.
Q. I want to make a Freedom of Information request, whom should I contact?
At the bottom of every page of the website there is a Freedom of Information link. If you click on this you will be taken to a list of contact details for Freedom of Information for each signatory.
Q. I want to know more about the Concordat, whom should I contact?
If you wish to know more about the Concordat itself click on the ‘Contact Us’ link at the top of the page and complete the form set up specifically for feedback, comments and questions.
Healthcare providers
Q. What type of healthcare providers are on the site?
There is a full list of every NHS Trust in England. There is a full list of all independent healthcare providers registered under the Care Standards Act (2000) in England. There is also a list of all the Deaneries in England. Welsh, Northern Irish, and Scottish healthcare providers are not included. There is a Welsh Concordat, for more information click on the link below:
/walesconcordat.cfm
Q. What type of information is available for each healthcare organisation?
There are full address details for each organisation. You can view this by entering the name of the provider you are looking for in the Healthcare Provider drop down box and clicking search.
Q. How are schedules planned for each organisation?
Each signatory plans its own activity schedules to be loaded on to the site. If you wish to find out more about how a signatory plans its schedule, click on the Concordat Signatories link on either the scheduling homepage or the Concordat homepage and navigate to the signatory you require more information about. If you question is not answered there see the contact details provided at the bottom of each page to request more information.
Q. What is a deanery?
Deaneries monitor healthcare education management systems to ensure that the junior doctors' work is safe and effective. By making sure that the deaneries are monitoring the training and care of patients treated by juniors the PMETB is able to approve training posts and programmes by assessing deaneries rather than healthcare providers. This new assessment system minimises duplication and overlap; including deaneries reflects this work and allows coordination with it
Activity owners/signatories
Q. What are signatories?
The signatories are organisations who are members of a voluntary agreement called the Concordat. They have agreed to implement the principles set out in the Concordat document.
Q. What are full signatories?
Full signatories are those organisations that directly or indirectly regulate, audit or review health or social care in England and/or routinely request data from, or do inspections of NHS organisations and providers of independent healthcare.
Q. What are associate signatories?
Associate signatories are those organisations that may not directly undertake inspection, audit or review of health or social care in England but whose work is closely associated with the principles and objectives of the Concordat.
Q. How do I get more information regarding a particular signatory?
Go to the Concordat homepage and click the signatories link in the left hand menu. From there you can navigate to either the list of full or associate signatories.
Q. What relationship does Cancer Peer Review have to the concordat?
The programme of Cancer Peer Review visits is organised by the National Cancer Action Team, which is funded directly by the Department of Health, which is an associate signatory.
Searching
Q. How do I search for a particular organisation / activity type / activity owner / SHA?
You can search for any of the above by entering your choice into the search menu in the scheduling home page search facility on the left of the page.
Q. How do I use ‘Help Finding a Provider’ facility?
Click on the ‘Help Finding a Provider’ link. A pop up box will appear where you can enter parts or all of the provider name e.g. Elizabeth. This will return a list of providers with the word Elizabeth in the name. You can also search by location e.g. Leicester will return a list of organisations that have Leicester in the name and/or address.
Q. Can I do searches with multiple conditions?
You can search on most filters simultaneously. If you however pick a Strategic Health Authority (SHA), the list of healthcare providers will be shortened to include only the NHS trusts that fall in that SHA. If you enter an organisation into the Healthcare Provider list you will not be able to choose anything in the SHA list.
Q. What does the list of search results show?
The search results will show the planned date, name and type of activity. You will also be able to see who the activity owner is and in the case of NHS trusts you will see the SHA it falls under. If there are any associated reports there will be a document symbol next to the activity to show this.
Q. What does the calendar view show?
The calendar view will show your results in a one-month calendar view. If you have searched for activities for more than one month the default month you will see is the month the first activity you searched for falls into. If the activities you searched for cover more than one month you will need to use the navigation bars to see your other activities at different times of the year.
Q. What does the ‘Clear’ button do?
If you have entered an incorrect choice for one of search options and wish to start your search again, clicking the ‘Clear’ button will clear all your previous choices.
Q. What is ‘Start Date’ and ‘End Date’ for?
The start and end date are date options that allow you to narrow down your search to a specific time period. To view activities in a certain start and end date enter dates into each box and click search.
Alerts
Q. What are the alerts for?
If you wish to be kept up to date about a particular healthcare provider or group of providers you can opt to receive email alerts every time new or revised activities are loaded on to the site against them. To register for alerts go to the activities scheduling page and click the register button at the bottom of the search panel. You then add your email address and any healthcare provider and SHA’s you wish to receive alerts for.
Q. What sort of information will I receive?
You will receive an email detailing new or revised visiting information for that provider that has been loaded up on to the site. The information will include which activity owner is performing the activity, when it will happen, the activity title, and the healthcare provider to be visited.
Q. What is the ‘View List’ button for?
If you have already registered for alerts in the past and you wish to see which healthcare providers you have registered for enter your email address in the email box and click the ‘View List’ button. In the ‘Assigned Alerts’ box at the bottom of the screen there will be a list of your relevant healthcare providers.
Q. How many organisations can I be alerted regarding?
There is no limit to the amount of organisations you can register for.
Q. How do I stop the alerts?
To de-register for alerts enter your email address and click view list. You will then see a list of providers that you chose to receive alerts for. To remove then click ‘Remove All’. You will no longer receive alerts.
Unannounced activities
Q. What does the ‘Unannounced’ symbol mean?
The ‘Unannounced’ symbol refers to activities carried out that the healthcare provider was unaware was due to take place. A number of signatories conduct some of their activities this way. The Concordat wishes to ensure they are also coordinated.
Q. The visits with the unannounced symbol are scheduled to happen in the past. What does this mean?
Unannounced visits cannot be displayed on the site until after they have occurred. Potential unannounced visits can only be accessed by signatories to help them better coordinate visits.
Q. Why are unannounced visits undertaken?
Unannounced visits are undertaken to see a healthcare provider doing its day to day business without special preparation for an on site visit.
Reports
Q. There are reports attached to some activities, what are they for?
These are the reports drawn up by activity owners based on the activity that took place at that healthcare provider. It may include recommendations directed at the healthcare provider.
Q. How do I access reports?
To access a report use the search function to navigate to your chosen activity. At the bottom of the activity detail if there is a report associated with the activity there will be a document icon. Click on this to view the report.
Q. When do the reports become obsolete?
The decision of when to make a report obsolete lies with the signatory completing that particular activity. There are expiry dates on all reports attached to the site which take into account the time it takes to implement recommendations and any action plans.
Q. Some activities do not have reports attached, why is that?
The site has only been in operation since 1st March, the signatories have decided only to attach reports for activities since that date.
Q. Who do I contact regarding a particular report?
To discuss a particular report contact the activity owner contact whose details are available from the activity the report relates to. That person will be able to discuss the report in greater detail.
