Enabling and managing risk is a central part of delivering high quality health, care and social work services. The Duty of Candour promotes responsibility for developing safer systems. Safer systems better engage staff in and creates trust in people who use our services.
Registered care services have a responsibility to report Duty of Candour instances to the Care Inspectorate. Duty of Candour places organisational responsibility on the Council to engage in
- purposeful and meaningful apology,
- effective communication with the person affected by an unintended event that has caused harm and
- providing support to employees and others who may be affected by the incident(s).
The Council’s duty of candour Policy and Procedure does not replace those already in place within the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership (EHSCP). Alignment with pathways developed by EHSCP were agreed at point of design. This Policy and Procedure includes Children’s services and services provided by Community Justice.