Your Care, Your Way – improving delivery of the Accessible Information Standard

Healthwatch is hosting this event to launch the Your Care, Your Way campaign, which calls for improved accountability and implementation of the Accessible Information Standard (AIS).

Healthwatch England has joined forces with a coalition of user-led national organisations to highlight how the NHS and social care fail to support people's accessible communication needs.

By law, all publicly funded health and social care providers must fully comply with the AIS and ensure people are given information about their health and care in accessible formats. New research by Healthwatch England and partner organisations has shown this is not happening, with many services overlooking people's needs and failing to provide the right support.

At this webinar, you will hear:

• A summary of Healthwatch England's recent research findings on accessible information, drawing on Freedom of Information requests submitted to 200 NHS provider trusts and over 6,000 people's experiences shared with Healthwatch
• Survey data on staff and public experiences of the AIS from a coalition of user-led charities, including RNIB, SignHealth and RNID, and user-led perspectives on how to improve implementation
• Information about NHS England's ongoing review of the AIS, developing conclusions from the review, and opportunities to contribute
• A perspective from an NHS Trust on the barriers to implementing the AIS and overcoming them

We welcome questions from the audience and contributions towards the end of the webinar, as well as a discussion about how you and your organisations can get involved in supporting the campaign.

This event is for staff working in NHS and social care services, service providers, ICS leaders, voluntary sector and professionals. Register

This event is being run by:

• Urte Macikene, Policy and External Affairs Manager, Healthwatch England. Healthwatch England sits on the Accessible Information Standard Review Programme Board.
• Malcolm Pearce, Senior Manager, North of England Commissioning Support, Malcolm led the Rapid Review of British Sign Language on behalf of NHS E/I and is currently supporting the review of the Accessible Information Standard
• Mike Wordingham, Policy and Campaigns Officer, RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People)
• A speaker from an NHS Trust about their experience of implementing the AIS (TBC)