Duty of Candour Report 2022/23

All health and social care services in Scotland have a duty of candour. This is a legal requirement which means that when things go wrong and mistakes happen, the people affected understand what has happened, receive an apology, and that organisations learn how to improve for the future.

In Scotland, care services and social work services have a legal obligation, under The Duty of Candour Procedure (Scotland) Regulation 2018, to produce a short annual report showing the learning from their duty of candour incidents in the reported period. The report must be published on the corporate website, and notification given to the Care Inspectorate.

In England, the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 establishes similar principles and requirements, except for the mandatory reporting element. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) can prosecute a registered service for a breach of Reg. 20 under the Act.

This document complies with our obligations in Scotland.

This short report describes how our healthcare services have operated the duty of candour during the time between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023. The information contained in this report is also shared with the Scottish regulator (Care Inspectorate) Reg. Service No: SP2004004093.

How many incidents happened to which the duty of candour applies?

In the last financial year ending 31 March 2023, there have been no incidents to which the duty of candour applied.

Our policies, procedures and learning

A Duty of Candour Policy is in place and regularly reviewed. Our incident report procedures accounts for our obligation to monitor and report duty of candour incidents. Our L&D programme includes an e-learning module for all staff on duty of candour.

When an incident occurs in one of our services where duty of candour applies, our staff report this to their line manager and to the Director of Services (Scotland). The incident is also recorded on our incident reporting system (Ulysses) and the Registered Manager completes the Care Inspectorate reporting e-form.

We Are With You’s local and national Incident Review groups review each incident and highlights learning from a particular incident for either a specific team member, team or the organisation as a whole. Any serious incidents are also discussed within team reflective practice sessions to ensure that the process is about learning and practice development.

We know that serious mistakes can be distressing for staff as well as service users and their families. Our Employee Assistance Programme offers support to our staff if they have been affected by a duty of candour incident.

Where a duty of candour incident arises from staff wrongdoing, our disciplinary process is implemented.

For more information about this report, please contact Louise Stewart, Director of Service Delivery - Scotland, by emailing louise.stewart@wearewithyou.org.uk or by calling 0141 221 8390.