The Information Governance Toolkit (IGT) is an existing approved Information Standard. It is an online performance tool produced by Department of Health (DH) to support organisations to meet their information governance obligations and to enable organisations to measure their performance against information governance requirements. All organisations that fall under the responsibility of DH are required to carry out self-assessments of their compliance against the IG requirements.
In addition, other organisations, which have access to NHS patients and/or their information, are required to self-assess for IG compliance using this tool. The purpose of the assessment is to enable organisations to measure their compliance against the law and central guidance and to see whether information is handled correctly and safely. An important aim is to demonstrate that the organisation can be trusted with personal information.
The Government remains committed to ensuring that all parts of the Health and Social Care system work to and can evidence robust information governance arrangements. The NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will have key roles in securing these arrangements.
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 granted the NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) powers to prepare and publish information standards. In preparation for this new role, and recognising that the guidance and standards published in future will have a degree of legal force, the NHS CB will be working with key partner organisations to review all existing standards, including the NHS IGT.
The additional reasons for this review include:
What we have done so far
You can find the Terms of Reference in the list of Related Documents (below).
A project team has been established for this review together with two IGT review panels, The project team developed a set of proposed questions for the review and then invited key stakeholders to form the review panels. Two review panel workshops have been held to discuss the proposed questions and to formulate the final set of questions for this consultation. You can find out who the panel members are and read their comments in the attached notes from both workshops (see Related Documents).
2012/13 IGT compliance
There will be no immediate changes following this review and organisations will be provided with ample notice should any changes be proposed. In the meantime, organisations should complete and publish IGT assessments as usual.
What will happen next
Following the online consultation, the IGT Review Panel will reconvene to analyse the findings and a report will be produced for the IG Professional Leadership Group. We will also publish the summary of findings.
This consultation is now closed. The IGT Review Panel will reconvene to analyse the findings and a report will be produced for the IG Professional Leadership Group. We will also publish the summary of findings.
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