Guidelines on making recommendations
The Concordat members have developed these guidelines to address specific concerns expressed by healthcare providers about the lack of coordination in the number of recommendations directed at them by external, regulatory and review bodies. The guidelines are therefore a first step in improving coordination by providing a minimum quality standard for new recommendations. Whilst the guidelines are not mandatory - some signatories have legal remits requiring they retaining their independence - nevertheless each new recommendation is expected to meet this standard, which includes checking to see what recommendations already exist before creating more.
The signatories have agreed that the guidelines will come into force by 1st July 2006, for the first tranche of signatories, and by all signatories by 1st September 2006. However the guidelines will not be applied retrospectively; that is to say recommendations made before these dates will not be amended if they do not meet the guidelines.
We believe that the consistent application of these guidelines - although simple and brief in themselves - will be a powerful driver in helping regulatory bodies promote more effectively the collective process of improvement in healthcare providers. If specific recommendations do not appear to meet these guidelines please approach the signatory concerned: the ‘Contact Us’ link at the top of this page gives help in doing this.
We are keen to see these guidelines used more widely and fully support their use by non-signatory bodies.
