Annual duty of candour report – Scotland

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.

An important part of this duty is that we provide an annual report about the duty of candour in our services.

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

In the last year, there have been no incidents in Scotland to which the duty of candour applied.

2.   Information about our policies and procedures 

Where something has happened that triggers the duty of candour, our staff report on our internal incident management system. The Care Inspectorate Registered Manager records the incident and reports as necessary to the Care Inspectorate. When an incident has happened, the manager and staff set up a learning review. This allows everyone involved to review what happened and identify changes for the future.

The key steps are:

• Report – All staff must report notifiable incidents via the Sciensus Incident and Complaints Reporting System and to senior staff immediately.
• Immediate corrective, preventative and supportive actions – Staff must undertake any immediate actions to minimise harm to the patient, other patients that could be harmed and provide other support to the patient, carer and family.
• Acknowledgement – Inform and offer an initial apology to the patient or relevant person and clinical referring centre that a Duty of Candour incident has occurred.
• Investigation – Undertake an investigation of the incident.
• Response – Send a response to the patient or relevant person and a copy to the clinical referral centre.
• External communication – Anonymised information concerning Duty of Candour incidents will be shared with regulators, the national reporting and learning system, as appropriate.
• Service improvement – Implement the learning arising from the incident investigation to minimise and mitigate the risk of recurrence of similar incidents in the future.
• Documentation – Keep a secure written record of all meetings and communications with the relevant person.

If you would like more information about our service, please contact the Registered Regulatory Manager using these details: Ursula.corbett@sciensus.com