Duty of Candour: Consultation on draft legislation

Overview

The Manx Care Bill will establish Manx Care as the new organisation responsible for the delivery of health and care services on the Island. They will be instructed by the Department of Health and Social Care on what services are to be delivered, to what standard and for what budget. Manx Care will then deliver services in the way it deems best and the Department will hold Manx Care to account for Manx Care’s performance.

It is anticipated that the Manx Care Bill will bring in the new legal duty for health and social care services to be open and transparent with service users from 1 April 2021. The intention in bringing in a duty of candour is to provide patients and service users with greater confidence in the providers of health and social care services as well as encouraging a culture of openness, improvement and learning from mistakes.

The duty of candour in the Manx Care Bill does not provide any detail on how the duty should operate in practice. For that, a new set of Regulations is needed, which will require organisations providing people with health and care services to follow a set procedure where a person’s safety has been, or is likely to be, affected as a result of using a health or social care service. The Regulations set out what information must be provided and when.

The intention is for these Regulations to come into operation at the same time as the establishment of Manx Care, i.e. 1 April 2021, and the purpose of this consultation is to seek your views on the proposed content of these draft regulations.

Why your views matter

This consultation is being issued for the purpose of gathering views about regulations for implementing a statutory duty of candour for health and social care services (a duty to be open and honest with service users).

Consultation Process

There are a number of questions throughout this consultation paper on specific aspects of such a duty. They are there as guidance as to what you may wish to consider when responding. They should not be taken to be prescriptive or restrictive; you are free to raise any points or make any comments that you believe to be relevant.

The deadline by which we need your response is 22 January 2021.

Electronic copies of the consultation and the draft regulations may be downloaded under ‘Related’ at the bottom of this page. Paper copies of this consultation are also available from either the Department of Health and Social Care or from the Health and Care Transformation Programme. Contact details for each are provided below:

Georgina Jones,
Department of Health and Social Care,
Crookall House,
Demesne Road,
Douglas,
IM1 3QA
Telephone: +44 1624 642608

Nicola Igoea,
Health and Care Transformation Programme,
Heywood House,
Ridgeway Street,
Douglas,
IM1 1EW
Telephone: +44 1624 693867

When submitting a response please bear in mind the following:

1.  Your response, subject to 2 and 3 below, will be carefully considered; however it does not guarantee that your proposals or preferences will ultimately form a part of the new legal framework for the duty of candour.
2. Any abusive or offensive responses will be discounted.
3. Please let us know the name of the organisation that you are responding on behalf of, if applicable.
4. We would welcome your response at the earliest opportunity ahead of the closing date.

Queries

If you have any query that relates to how this consultation has been carried out please contact Nicola Igoea by e-mail at Nicola.Igoea2@gov.im