Information Governance Toolkit Version 11

All NHS providers, including community pharmacies need to provide information governance assurances to the NHS on an annual basis. These assurances are provided through completion of an online assessment tool, the NHS Information Governance Toolkit (IGT). Requirements for IG change annually, and Version 11 of the toolkit has now been released.

Based on user feedback, some changes have been made to the IGT functionality and some requirement guidance materials have had minor improvements to add clarity or to include up to date information. As there are no significant changes to the sixteen IG requirements for community pharmacy for 2013/14,  there is no additional impact or burden on the service in terms of conformance. Requirement 319 cannot yet be completed as PSNC and NHS England are still in discussion on business continuity planning. Pharmacies are expected to attain Level 2 against each of the pharmacy IG requirements and the deadline for submitting this year’s return is 31st March 2014.

Improvements made to the functionality of the IG Toolkit to improve usability and user experience are outlined below:

• Domain name changes

These reflect the transition of the IGT product to the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), which now has the responsibility for the url and improved hosting arrangements.  The same team is in place to continue maintaining the IGT website and content development and further work will be required over the course of 2013 to 2014 to finish updating  branding, content and reference materials.

• Disclaimer for model/exemplar materials

A disclaimer statement displayed under the Knowledgebase section, within the individual requirement pages and the Knowledge Base search tool section will read:-

‘These exemplar materials have been provided over several years by various organisations or drafted by NHS colleagues. They are intended as general information which may assist.  However, the inclusion of this material should not be interpreted as an endorsement or approval’.

• External IG Delivery Team Review Section

An area for the External IG Delivery Team to keep a record of notes or actions when reviewing IGT assessments in support of various will only be visible to IGT users, whose IGT assessment has been reviewed by a member of the External IG Delivery Team, when they are logged in, and will not visible to the public even after publication of the assessment.

• Enhancement of improvement planning and evidence management facilities

Users wanted a more dynamic improvement plan tool and facility to manage their evidence more efficiently from a single location on the IGT. One consolidated report/plan is now available and is displayed in different formats to allow for more active online improvement planning, managing evidence and an option for offline working if necessary.  User guides on the new/enhanced improvement planning and evidence management tools are available from the ‘Help section of the IGT.

• IG Incident Reporting Tool

This has been developed to facilitate and enhance existing processes in relation to IG Serious Incidents Requiring Investigation (SIRI), and to ensure that DH is informed when necessary.

IGT Version 11 Change Release Note is available here.

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