The Information Standard

Asthma UK is committed to fully participating in the Department of Health’s accreditation scheme for health and social care information – The Information Standard. We intend to comply with all aspects and requirements of The Information Standard.
 
Asthma UK wholly embraces the aims and objectives of The Information Standard. We hope to use the Standard to:

• help people with asthma make informed decisions about how they manage their asthma
• reassure people with asthma, their carers and healthcare and education professionals that our information is gathered from reliable sources
• ensure it reflects current evidence-based medicine and current practice guidelines
• maintain and improve our information production system and the quality of our health and social care information
• enhance our reputation as a reliable and authoritative source of asthma information.


Our commitment to the Standard has the full support of Asthma UK’s Chief Executive, Executive Team and Board of Trustees. Responsibility for making sure that the charity complies with the standards lies with the Information Accreditation Lead.
 


This policy statement will be reviewed on each accreditation and any changes made within this time will be documented. 


Scope of the scheme at Asthma UK


The Information Standard applies to written or scripted health and social care information for people with asthma, carers, parents of children with asthma and healthcare and education professionals. 



In particular, it relates to information which is intended to help people make choices and take decisions about their health and healthcare. It includes, for example, our leaflets, books, information sheets, presentations, audio-visual material and digital media (web). Where health information is presented it will carry The Information Standard logo to confirm its development and production has met the Standard.
 


Our websites (asthma.org.uk and kickasthma.org.uk) contain a wide range of information but only the health areas of the sites will carry The Information Standard logo. Asthma UK is responsible for the health information on our websites and neither Capita, who operate the scheme, nor the Department of Health, who own the scheme, will have any responsibility for the accuracy or relevance of this information. User-generated information found on our websites is excluded from the Standard.    
 


The scheme covers health information products we work on with external partners and sponsors, which we produce, as they will go through our usual processes and comply with The Information Standard.