Self-assessment management tool for delivery of information prescriptions

Self-assessment management tool for delivery of information prescriptions
March 2010


This tool aims to support organisations with the implementation of information prescriptions.

It covers the background to information prescriptions, including what they are, who they are

aimed at, and how they can improve the service user’s experience. It helps you to examine what your organisation is already doing and consider the further steps you may need to take to implement information prescriptions.

Introduction

The NHS Constitution, published in January 2009, makes the provision of service user

information a right and is backed up by legislation for the first time:

‘The NHS commits to offer you easily accessible, reliable and relevant information to enable you to participate fully in your own healthcare decisions and to support you in making choices’ (Section 2a of the NHS Constitution)

Information prescriptions can contribute to the commitments of the NHS Constitution and

represent good practice for supporting individual rights. They provide a route for helping

individuals to access information, feel empowered and be more able to participate fully in

decisions about their care.

Every organisation already provides information to service users and their carers in a variety of ways. Information prescriptions will help you to build on existing good practice and help you to meet key quality indicator targets such as those set within the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) payment framework.

What is an information prescription?

Information plays a crucial role in supporting people with long-term conditions to take care

of themselves and improve their quality of life. Information prescriptions will give everyone

access to the information they need, when they need it, in a way they prefer to receive it.

An information prescription tells people about:

  • their condition
  • treatment options
  • care services (from equipment to help you get around the house to specialised
  • exercise classes)
  • benefits they may be able to claim
  • housing
  • support groups.

It signposts service users and their carers to further information and provides useful contact

details and website addresses, including details about local and national services and groups.

Information can be used to support people with making decisions about their health, healthcare and social care. Quality information empowers people to make choices that are right for them.

Information prescription needs can be discussed with GPs, other healthcare professionals or

social care workers, usually as part of a care plan.

Further information about information prescriptions and the resources available to help staff

prepare them is available on the information prescriptions website,

NHS Choices () allows people to create their own information prescription for a

variety of common long-term conditions.

Who is responsible for issuing information prescriptions?

NHS and social care organisations are responsible for delivering information prescriptions,

including commissioning and, in some cases providing the information for the prescription.

Health and social care professionals, and other community workers, are responsible for issuing information prescriptions.

Examples include:

  • community staff such GPs, social workers, community nurses and pharmacists
  • consultants, specialist nurses, allied health professionals and information centre staff within
  • secondary care
  • specialist voluntary sector professionals such as Macmillan nurses
  • voluntary sector organisations and support groups, and community library staff may also help
  • with issuing information prescriptions
  • service users and carers can create their own prescription from NHS Choices.

In order to meet the diverse needs of local populations, each organisation will have a unique

way of offering information prescriptions. Information prescriptions should be tailored to meet

the needs of the individual and the one-size-fits-all approach will not work.

Examples of different types of information prescriptions are available from the information

prescription website and NHS Choices.

The Information Standard

The Information Standard, formerly known as the Information Accreditation Scheme, was

launched in Autumn 2009, and helps people make informed decisions on their care and the care of their families by making it easy to identify information that is consistent, reliable and from a trustworthy source.

Over 50,000 organisations produce health and social care information in England, and any of

these can apply to join the scheme and become a certified information producer,

whether they are a public sector organisation (NHS or local authority), a voluntary sector

organisation or a commercial company.

Organisations that apply to join the scheme will be certified against a standard. The certification bodies will be approved by UK Accreditation Service (UKAS), an independent agency that accredits certification bodies.

Similar to other schemes, such as the Fair Trade mark, those organisations that meet the criteria set out in the standard will then be entitled to place the quality mark on their information materials. Information producers can also use the standard to improve the way in which they develop their information, leading to an overall improvement in the quality of information available to people.

Further information is available from the Department of Health,

Benefits of information prescriptions

The benefits to service users and carers include:

  • meeting the wider information needs of service users and carers, providing access
  • to information not traditionally or routinely offered, ie, not just health
  • increased awareness of local services and support groups
  • specific, comprehensible and timely information, which helps to reduce unnecessary anxiety,
  • stress and confusion
  • service users and carers are able to continue asking for and receiving information at every
  • stage of their care pathway and in every encounter with a professional
  • help to make informed choices about what information to receive and in which format, how
  • to receive it, and what decisions to take in relation to their health and well-being
  • a more flexible service, not restricted by appointment times, and supplied by a wider range
  • of support and advice centres, websites and helplines. This may also reduce the number of scheduled appointments needed less crisis management is needed – with improved self-management service users may be less likely to experience crises such as relapses or chronic episodes
  • the opportunity to become active partners in care planning
  • improved information and health literacy among service users and carers.

The benefits to professionals and organisations include:

  • reliable information can be accessed systematically, rather than relying on memory
  • or familiar but less reliable sources
  • high quality, tailored information, drawn from certified information producers
  • information that can be systematically updated and passed on to recipients
  • saves time by reducing the need for subsequent lengthy discussions
  • reduced instances of stress, anxiety and confusion in service users, which in some cases have led to anti-social behaviour, violence, self-harm, substance misuse, STIs and other offending behaviour
  • increased understanding of different service areas and the capacity to offer a more holistic service
  • improved quality of information for people with long-term conditions among non-specialist services, particularly those run by GPs and community teams.

Commissioners

Commissioners will be interested in the part information prescriptions can play in helping

people with long-term conditions to undertake more self management. Understanding how

people are using services and what they need is part of the information prescription process

and will help commissioners to develop better links with communities to inform local decision

making and priority setting.

Also, by communicating service expectations through the information prescription process,

commissioners are more likely to find out from users and carers where and when things

go wrong.

Further information, including guidance for commissioners, is available from the Information

Prescriptions website,

NHS Employers

NHS Employers is supporting NHS and social care organisations to enable them to address the workforce implications of information prescriptions.

As well as this tool, we have developed an e-learning module to help staff develop the skills

and competencies needed to assess information needs and prescribe appropriate information.

Further details are available on our website

If you have any comments or feedback on this self-assessment tool, please contact

About this tool

This tool will help you consider what your organisation currently does in relation to providing

information for service users and carers, and what further work may be needed before

information prescriptions can be routinely offered.

It will help you to review the way you provide information, and lead to open discussion

with service users and carers about what they find helpful and how they prefer to

access information.

This tool has been designed as an aid to your own internal development as an organisation,

and you will not be inspected or expected to share your findings with any external agencies.

This tool will not provide you with a comprehensive checklist by which to assess your readiness, but it will highlight the areas you need to consider in terms of your organisational ability and capacity to deliver information prescriptions and help you to form an action plan to advance your organisational strategy.

The Information Prescriptions website includes a section on how to plan for delivery of

information prescriptions including hints and tips, how to get started and developing your

action plan.

Who should complete this tool?

To get the most benefit from the tool we recommend that the process is led by a board level

member, eg, chief executive, director of clinical engagement or a non-executive director with

an interest in long-term conditions or public and service user involvement. Alternatively, it could be led by a director of adult social services, or a board-level member within a voluntary

organisation.

How long will it take to complete?

This tool has been rigorously tested by individuals and organisation from the NHS, social care and the voluntary sector. It is anticipated that the form will take 1-2 hours to complete, plus time for data gathering, which will vary depending on the information that is readily available and the time it takes to collate.

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Self-assessment management tool for delivery of information prescriptions

Current practice

No / Question / Yes
 / No
 / Evidence / action required
1 / Who does your organisation currently provide information to? For example service users, carers etc.
2 / What types of information are you currently providing eg, do you provide information about medical conditions, medicines, care provision or local support groups?
3 / Is this information provided verbally, written or electronically?
4 / Does your organisation provide information in accessible formats for service users and carers? Eg, audio visual format, Braille, plain English, other languages? / Yes / No
5 / Does your organisation provide information in accessible formats for staff? Eg, audio visual format, Braille, plain English, other languages? / Yes / No
6 / If not, what plans do you have to provide information in accessible formats for
  • service users/carers
  • staff?

7 / Where is the information provided? Please include information about information centres, libraries etc.
No / Question / Yes
 / No
 / Evidence / action required
8 / Do you provide different information for service users depending on where they are in the care pathway?
9 / What sources do you currently use to provide the information?
10 / Do you have mechanisms in place for signposting users to local services? Eg, agreements with other local organisations such as library services, pharmacy, etc / Yes / No
11 / Do you have mechanisms in place for signposting users to national services? Eg, agreements with national organisations such as Macmillan Cancer Support, etc / Yes / No
12 / What mechanisms do you use to quality assure the information that you provide?
13 / Do you have agreements in place as to who provides specialised information materials and who talks through information issues with service users? Eg, cancer information centres / Yes / No
14 / Do staff have access to quality-assured information? / Yes / No
No / Question / Yes  / No
 / Evidence / action required
15 / Are you aware of The Information Standard and how this can help you provide quality assured information? / Yes / No
16 / Do you collect and evaluate feedback on the information and the quality of information that you provide from a) users and carers and b) staff? / Yes / No
17 / How do you respond to this feedback?
18 / Which staff members are responsible for providing the information to service users and carers?
19 / Do you know how confident they feel to deliver it? / Yes / No
20 / Do you know what training and support you have in place to address this? / Yes / No
21 / How does your organisation record what information has been given to people and their carers?
22 / Does this include liaison with other organisations, eg, pharmacy, social care, etc? / Yes / No
No / Question / Yes
 / No
 / Evidence / action required
23 / Are information prescriptions high on your organisation’s agenda? / Yes / No
24 / Do you have a board-level champion to promote information prescriptions? / Yes / No
25 / Do you have a health information manager or someone who will lead this within the organisation? / Yes / No
26 / Do your staff know who to speak to about information prescriptions in the organisation? / Yes / No

Partnership working

No / Question / Yes
 / No
 / Evidence / action required
27 / Are you aware of what information your strategic partners (other public and third sector organisations) are delivering to people? / Yes / No
28 / Do you have access to the information they provide? / Yes / No
29 / Do you know if they provide information in alternative formats or different languages? / Yes / No
30 / When your own organisation begins to offer information prescriptions, do you have a strategy/mechanism with your strategic partners to avoid unnecessary duplication? / Yes / No
31 / How will your staff link the information they provide to other initiatives such as Personalised Care Planning?

Service users and carers

No / Question / Yes
 / No
 / Evidence / action required
32 / Are service users and carers involved in the information giving process? / Yes / No
33 / Are service users involved in the quality assurance process? / Yes / No
34 / If so, how are they involved?
35 / If not, how might you set up a system to quality assure and involve service users in your information provision?

Organisational support

No / Question / Yes
 / No
 / Evidence / action required
36 / Is there engagement and support for the introduction of information prescriptions? / Yes / No
37 / If not how could this be improved?
38 / Does your current IT infrastructure support delivery of information prescriptions throughout the organisation? / Yes / No
39 / Is your IT department involved in the implementation and delivery of information prescriptions? / Yes / No
40 / Do members of staff have internet access at work? / Yes / No
41 / Are all PCs and laptops compliant with the guidance as recommended by NHS Connecting for Health? / Yes / No
42 / Do you have a budget for service user information materials? / Yes / No
43 / If so, is it sufficient to ensure that information is available in the right format for the people who need it? / Yes / No

Workforce

No / Question / Yes
 / No
 / Evidence / action required
44 / Have you considered how to link the skills and competencies used in prescribing information to the Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) (NHS organisations only)? / Yes / No
45 / If so, how?
46 / Are you aware of what training is available to staff for prescribing information prescriptions? / Yes / No
47 / Are your staff aware of the following links and support tools?
–e-learning tool for delivering information prescriptions
–NHS Choices
–Information Prescription website / Yes
Yes
Yes / No
No
No

Accessibility

No / Question / Yes
 / No
 / Evidence / action required
48 / Have you completed an Equality Impact Assessment for the introduction of information prescriptions? / Yes / No
49 / How will you engage with staff to ensure they are behind the implementation?

Monitoring and evaluation

No / Question / Yes
 / No
 / Evidence / action required
50 / How will you monitor the delivery of information prescriptions?
51 / How will you evaluate the impact of information prescriptions on health outcomes? Eg, what clinical validation methods could be adapted and what will you use?
52 / How will you capture the experience of service users and carers in relation to information prescriptions?
53 / Do you know how many staff have had training on information prescriptions using the e-learning module?
/ Yes / No

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Evaluation Form

Information prescriptions self-assessment tool

This publication has been prepared by NHS Employers. We welcome any comments, and all replies will be treated as confidential and only used for evaluation purposes.

Key 5 = excellent 1 = poorPlease circle

1.How easy was it to use this tool ?

54321

Additional comments

2.How would you rate the information provided in this tool?

54 321

Additional comments

3.How usefulwas the tool in helping you implement information prescriptions?

54 321

Additional comments

4.What other information or tools would you have found useful?

5.Please use this space to tell us about your experiences of using the tool - include any suggestions for improvements

How did you hear about this self assessment tool?

 Flyer  Interchange alert Email from NHS Employers

 NHS Employers website Colleague Line Manager / Supervisor

 Workforce Bulletin Other, please state

About you:

Name (optional):

Job Title

Organisation:

Thank you for completing this confidential questionnaire.

Please email your response to or post to Jayne Thomas, NHS Employers, 2 Brewery Wharf, Kendell Street, Leeds, LS10 1JR