Standards and Accreditation of Services

Introduction

For the first time in the UK, there are now standards of performance for occupational health services.

These standards have been developed by the Faculty of Occupational Medicine in partnership with a multidisciplinary, multi-agency stakeholder group.

The Faculty, in conjunction with the stakeholder partners, is encouraging all occupational health services – in both the NHS and the private sector – to familiarise themselves with the standards, and to work towards complying with them during 2010.

Over the next twelve months, the Faculty will be developing an accreditation system to underpin the standards. The plan is for accreditation to be piloted later in 2010 and operational in early 2011.

The purpose of the project is to define the standards and minimum requirements that will apply to occupational health services that participate in the UK voluntary accreditation scheme and to provide occupational health services with a framework for quality assurance. They are organised in six categories:

Business probity
Information governance
People
Facilities and equipment
Relationships with purchasers
Relationships with workers.

Download the new standards