The following documents are only available in the policies and procedures section.
Click the box below for an overview of the document.
The Information Governance Policy outlines the Trust's strategic approach to information governance, information risk management and the governance arrangements for handling information and associated information risks in order to protect the Trust, its patients and its staff from such risks.
The Information Governance Policy is supported by the Information governance procedure that outlines the Trust's overarching framework to protect and ensure the privacy, confidentiality and security of information. It details both statutory requirements (including Data Protection and Caldicott Principles) and good practice on how to manage person confidential information to ensure it is received, held, communicated and transferred securely and legitimately.
The Information sharing procedure provides guidance to staff to ensure that safe and legitimate sharing of information is undertaken between partner organisations. It details both statutory requirements and good practice to ensure only appropriate information is shared legitimately, confidentiality is protected and information is safeguarded.
The Access to records procedure provides guidance to staff on individuals requesting access to their records, including subject access requests under the Data Protection legislation. It defines the actions required to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Data Protection legislation and to ensure the effective and consistent management of all access requests.
The Freedom of information procedure outlines the Trust's overarching framework to manage and handle information requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. It details both statutory requirements and good practice on how to manage information requests under this legislation. The procedure is supported by the Freedom of Information - Staff Guidance which provides practical advice to all staff on what the Freedom of Information Act is, how to recognise a request under the Act and what to do if they receive a request for information under the Act.
The widespread availability and use of social media applications brings opportunities to understand, engage and communicate in new ways. The social media procedure aims to provide a balance to support the use of social media, whilst providing a framework of good practice to ensure the confidentiality and security of information is protected, that the Trust is not exposed to legal and governance risks, that the reputation of the Trust is not adversely affected, and that the users are able to clearly distinguish that where information is provided via social networking applications it is coming from legitimate Trust sources.
Good record-keeping helps to ensure the safety and welfare of both children and adults, whilst ensuring the Trust complies with legislation, national guidance and controls assurance, as well as Information Governance standards. The record keeping policy and record keeping procedure will ensure that the Trust fulfils its responsibilities in the delivery of quality clinical and corporate records to support service provision, improvement and transformation to ensure services are provided safely and securely.
A vast quantity of active and inactive information exists throughout the NHS that if stored and maintained in paper form would require extensive physical storage, document retrieval and management facilities. As such, the Trust is moving towards digitising its records wherever possible, including scanning documents where necessary. The scanning procedure outlines how staff should undertake this task in order to ensure documents are legible and the integrity of their contents is maintained to achieve BS 10008:2008 'Evidential weight and legal admissibility of information stored electronically'.