Department of Health

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Social care information governance

  • Last modified date:
    1 May 2007

What is information governance?

The following information only applies to adult social care.  Children’s social care issues are the responsibility of the Department for Education and Skills

Information governance currently covers the following:

  • Data Protection Act 1998
  • Freedom of Information Act 2000
  • The Confidentiality Code of Practice
  • Information security management
  • Records management 
  • Information quality assurance
  • Information governance management
  • Specific organisational views, e.g., Councils with Social Services Responsibilities (CSSRs)

Information governance has four fundamental aims:-

  • To support the provision of high quality care by promoting the effective and appropriate use of information.
  •  To encourage responsible staff to work closely together, preventing duplication of effort and enabling more efficient use of resources.
  •  To develop support arrangements and provide staff with appropriate tools and support to enable them to discharge their responsibilities to consistently high standards.
  •  To enable organisations to understand their own performance and manage improvement in a systematic and effective way.

For more on the latest developments on information governance please visit

NHS Connecting for Health Statement of Compliance

NHS CFH’s Statement of Compliance details the obligations that all organisations need to agree to before receiving access to the N3 network and/or NHS CFH’s services.  The Statement of Compliance replaces the previous “Code of Connection” and went live on 1st December 2006 for any new organisations taking NHS CFH services and/or connecting to the N3 network for the first time.

The Statement of Compliance:

  • will provide a broader agreement for the security requirements, which organisations must have in place before they can access the network, between NHS CFH and the connecting organisation.
  • completes the migration from the previous network to N3.
  • introduces a self-regulating form of governance to cover the evolution of both technologies and NHS CF itself.

During 2007-8 NHS CFH will receive Statement of Compliance submissions from existing organisations with a Code of Connection. All organisations will be expected to migrate from the Code of Connection to the Statement of Compliance by March  2008.  During this period NHS CFH will provide support at different satges to each type of organisation migrating to the Statement of Compliance.  For up to date information the timetable and process please visit

Social Care Information Governance Toolkit

During 2003-04 the former NHS Information Authority (NHSIA), working with a reference group of social care experts, produced an embryonic Social Care Information Governance Toolkit (SCIGT), a version of which was avialable on the Association of Directors of Social Services Information Management Group (ADSS-IMG) website. With the closure of the NHSIA, the responsibility for the development of standards contained within the SCIGT tranfered to the NHS CFH Digital Information Policy Team.  Additionally, NHS CFH now provides technical support to host and maintain the SCIGT.

The 2007 SCIGT was introduced to enable organisations requiring an N3 connection to complete the required on-line information governance assessment.  The standards incorporated into the SCIGT are derived from earlier work started by the former NHSIA and are equivalent to standards required by NHS organisations.  The level of compliance required by NHS CFH of any organisation applying for an N3 connection is the same whether the health or social care organisation is in the public or independent sector.

The SCIGT forms part of the suite of NHS Connecting for Health's information governance toolkits for health and social care organisations which will be updated occasionally.  The toolkit can be accessed at:

Further enquiries

For enquiries concerning technical issues such as connecting to the N3 network, or concerning the SCIGT,  please contact the helpdesk at:

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