Our Duty of Candour Report for 2024/25.
All health and social care services in the United Kingdom have statutory obligations regarding the duty of candour, a legal requirement which means that when things go wrong and medical mistakes happen, the people affected understand what has happened, receive an apology, and that organisations learn how to improve their practices 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 also 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 report complies with our regulatory obligations in Scotland.
This short report describes how our healthcare services in Scotland have operated the duty of candour during the charity’s financial year from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. The information contained in this report is also shared with the Scottish regulator (Care Inspectorate) Reg. Service No: SP2004004093.
In the last financial year ending 31 March 2025, there have been no incidents to which the duty of candour applied.
Our ‘Being Open and 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 Scottish services where duty of candour applies, our staff report this to their line manager and to the Director of Operations (Scotland). The incident is also recorded on our incident reporting system (Ulysses) and the Registered Manager completes the Care Inspectorate reporting e-form.
WithYou’s local and national incident review groups review each incident and highlight 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 clients and their families. Our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) offers support to our staff should they be affected by a duty of candour incident.
Where a duty of candour incident arises from staff negligence and/or intentional wrongdoing, our disciplinary process is also implemented.
For more information about this report, please contact the Director of Operations (Scotland) by email at louise.stewart@wearewithyou.org.uk or by telephone: 07760 755 709.