Quality and safety standards

AccessAble produce online accessibility guides to buildings, sites & venues across the UK – including many hospitals, shops, tourist attractions and universities. The Trust has worked in partnership with AccessAble to develop a series of guides for many of our Trust sites.

We aspire to make our services accessible for all. That's why we have a number of different options in place to support people to access our services.

The standard aims to make sure that people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss are provided with information that they can easily read or understand, and with support, so they can communicate easily with health and social care services.

The Caldicott Principles allow for the secure transfer of sensitive information across other agencies, for example Social Services, Education, Police and Judicial System.

All NHS organisations are required by NHS Protect (the NHS Body responsible for tackling all forms of crime against the NHS), to have in place an Anti-Fraud Service to combat fraud, bribery and corruption, and help safeguard NHS resources.

Disability Confident is a national scheme to support employers make the most of the talents disabled people can bring to the workplace. This means that we are committed to employing, supporting and promoting people with disabilities in the workplace.

Information on what do do during a Major Incidents or Emergency including the Trust's Major Incident Planning.

The Equality Act 2010 replaced previous legislation (such as the Race Relations Act 1976 and Disability Discrimination Act 1995) with a single Act. The Act simplified the law, removed inconsistencies and strengthened the law to help tackle discrimination and inequality.

The Equality Delivery System (EDS) is a system that helps NHS organisations improve the services they provide for their local communities and provide better working environments, free of discrimination, for those who work in the NHS, while meeting the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.

Equality Impact Assessment is a tool for helping us to consider the potential impact that our Trust activities might have on our community (staff, patients, carers & others), from different equality perspectives.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives people the right to request information held by public organisations. This allows us to be more open and transparent about our organisation, who we are, what we do, who we work with and where we spend money. 

The requirements on reporting gender pay have been set by the Government under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap (GPG) Information Regulations 2017). 

Our Inclusion Diversity and Equality Strategy sets out our aims, objectives and key priorities for the next 4 years (2018-2022). The strategy describes our vision and direction when implementing equality and diversity in our organisation both for our service users and workforce.

The aim of the Infection Prevention and Control Service is to promote as safe an environment as possible for staff, patients and visitors in order that the risk of contamination and cross infection are kept to a minimum.

Liabilities to Third Parties Scheme (LTPS)  and Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST)

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 is designed to consolidate various offences relating to human trafficking and slavery which includes servitude, being forced or deceived into work, not able to leave freely and easily without threat to themselves or their family resulting in undesirable or unsafe conditions.

We are committed to ensuring that infection prevention and control is a high priority within the organisation. The importance of hand hygiene and cleanliness remain central to provision of all our services.

NICE Guidelines are evidence-based recommendations developed by independent committees, including professionals and lay members, and consulted on by stakeholders.

Please do not visit healthcare facilities, like hospitals, if you have had diarrhoea and/or vomiting in the last 48 hours (even if these were mild symptoms). If you, or someone you care for, needs medical advice call NHS 111 or call your GP surgery in the first instance.

The NHS is a residency-based system. As a result, the NHS is not free to use for everyone.

If you believe these regulations may apply to you, or you are unsure whether they do, please notify a member of staff or contact the Overseas Visitors Team at whcnhs.contractsteam@nhs.net for further advice.

Parity of esteem means ‘to achieve equality between physical and mental health services provided to people.’ Within the NHS, this means that patients should be able to access services which treat both mental and physical health conditions equally and to the same standard.

The procurement team ensures there is a clear procurement plan regarding which contracts/services have been tendered, require tendering or are coming up for tendering again so that support can be given to budget holders to take this forward.

Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust comply with the Regulations on the Re-use of Public Sector Information.

Since April 2014 all NHS Trusts have been required to publish information about the nurse staffing levels. The data must show the staffing levels that we planned to have in place alongside the actual levels that were in place.

Worcestershire Health & Care NHS Trust is committed to ensuring that all patients receiving our services receive high quality care and have their privacy and dignity respected at all times. Provision of same sex accommodation helps safeguard privacy and dignity for patients at a time when they are often at their most vulnerable.

The Statement of Purpose (SOP) is a CQC registration requirement. The Trust’s SOP is updated each quarter to reflect changes in the organisation and the description and location of services.

Trauma Informed Care nurtures a culture of compassion and kindness for all and seeks to avoid re-traumatising people. It offers an environment in which we endeavour to understand and pay attention to the signs and symptoms of trauma and the variety of ways this may present.

Everyone should be able to access our services, including our website. The W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and the NHS Accessible information standard help us make our services better for you. 

The Workforce Disability Equality Standard places a national requirement on all NHS Trusts to provide data in respect of their disabled workforce. The aim is to ensure that our disabled workforce are treated fairly, not discriminated against, and that their talents are valued and developed.