Reasonable adjustments: The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag

(RADF) Information Standard mandate applies to all health and publicly funded social care. It applies across NHS and independent providers, social care (as providers), as well as independent contractors such as GPs and dentists. It also impacts all health and care IT system suppliers.

A helpful video is available here password to access this video is NHSDIGITALFLAG2023!

• NHS England is currently preparing for full implementation of the RADF, and we are asking Practices to prepare to conform to requirements of phase one from no later than the end of April 2024.

This checklist will ensure that processes are in place to identify, record, flag, share, meet, and review and update reasonable adjustment needs on their own systems and records. There is also an accompanying good practice resource package.

Please ensure you identify the disability and associated reasonable adjustment requirement of your existing registered or known patients or service users during routine appointments or interactions with the service. All patients with a learning disability and/or patients who are autistic must have a flag on their record to indicate this along with their reasonable adjustment needs, and this must be visible to all those who are involved in the care of the patient. The RADF will appear on the patient’s record to indicate their disability and their reasonable adjustment needs, which is visible to all those who are involved in the care of the patient. This technology is in development, so for now organisations should use their own systems.

Staff training for the RADF (see above) is now available on the eLearning for healthcare website. This training is available to all health and social care staff and support organisations to meet their obligations under the RADF. The training has been developed with subject matter expertise and has been thoroughly tested across a range of clinical and administrative professions.

The training will support staff working across health and social care to be able to provide the right care and treatment by making sure that the reasonable adjustment needs for disabled people are supported. This is a single, short module covering the background, what reasonable adjustments are, and the six-step process to identify people with a disability or impairment (including autistic people and people with a learning disability) and their reasonable adjustment needs, to make access to care fair.