Accessibility & Languages
Duty of Candour – Policy Statement
Whilst Partners in Advocacy is not directly involved in the delivery of health and social care to or on behalf of our advocacy partners, we have a professional obligation to ensure that our advocacy practice is safe, and no harm is caused as a result of it. To this end, we have developed this policy to recognise that obligation and to implement processes to support action where our advocacy practice may have caused harm to another.
The background to this policy and the rationale for its implementation are to be found in Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016.
Duty of Candour relates to all aspects of care and treatment and is defined as:
- The volunteering of all relevant information to persons who have or may have been harmed by the provisions of a service, whether the information has been requested and whether a complaint or a report about that provision has been made.
- Any unintended or unexpected incident which could have, or did lead to, harm for one or more of our advocacy partners in receipt of a service from ourselves.
Our candour practice:
- Partners in Advocacy’s approach to candour demonstrates commitment to providing high quality advocacy for and on behalf of our advocacy partners, even if things go wrong. Our staff are committed to ensuring that advocacy partners are fully involved in their advocacy service, that they are communicated with if there are issues and that any problems are fully investigated.
- By understanding the root causes that lead to an incident, and sharing lessons learned, we can help to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again. This is both good practice and gives our advocacy partners confidence that we are a learning organisation.
- This Duty of Candour Policy is included in the staff handbook and is highlighted at induction with new members of staff. The organisation also reviews the policy regularly.
- All staff are encouraged to report any incidents where they feel advocacy partner safety may have been comprised.
- In the first instance, any issue will be investigated by a Service Manager, or in their absence, an Operations Manager, and discussed with those staff members involved. Where appropriate, details will be discussed, and learning will be shared.
- The investigating Service Manager or Operations Manager should ensure the CEO is aware that an issue has been raised and an investigation has commenced.
This statement was created on 23rd January 2024.