All health and social care services in Scotland have a duty of candour. This is a legal requirement which means that when unintended or unexpected events happen that result in death or harm as defined in the Act, the people affected understand what has happened, receive an apology, and that organisations learn how to improve for the future. An important part of this duty is that we provide an annual report about how the duty of candour is implemented in our services. This short report describes how Leuchie at Home has operated the duty of candour during the time between 1 January 2022 and 1 January 2023. We hope you find this report useful.
- About Leuchie at Home
Leuchie at Home is a befriending service. The Leuchie at Home coordinator, a trained care assistant, along with a team of volunteers, go out to clients in the community for up to 2 hours a day, one day a week to give their unpaid carer a break. This may involve chatting at home, going out a walk or coffee or helping them get some shopping.
- How many incidents happened to which the duty of candour applies?
Between 1 January 2023 and 1 January 2024, there were 0 incidents where the duty of candour applied. These are unintended or unexpected incidents that result in death or harm as defined in the Act, and do not relate directory to the natural course of someone’s illness or underlying condition.
Leuchie at Home identifies these incidents through our adverse event management process. Over the time period for this report, we carried out 0 significant adverse event reviews. We identify through the significant adverse event review process if there were factors that may have caused or contributed to the event, which helps to identify duty of candour incidents.
| Type of unexpected or unintended incident (not
related to the natural course of someone’s illness or underlying condition) |
Number of times this
happened (between 1 January 2023 and 1 January 2024) |
| Someone has died | 0 |
| Someone has permanently less bodily, sensory,
motor, physiologic, or intellectual functions |
0 |
| Someone’s treatment has increased because of
Harm |
0 |
| The structure of someone’s body changes because of harm | 0 |
| Someone’s life expectancy becomes shorter
because of harm |
0 |
| Someone’s sensory, motor or intellectual functions is impaired for 28 days or more | 0 |
| Someone experienced pain or psychological harm for 28 days or more | 0 |
| A person needed health treatment in order to
prevent them dying |
0 |
| A person needing health treatment in order to
prevent other injuries |
0 |
- To what extent did Leuchie at Home follow the duty of candour procedure?
Leuchie at Home has followed the duty of candour procedure for the year 2023.
- Information about our policies and procedures
Every adverse event is reported through our local reporting system as set out in our Duty of Candour management policy. Through our adverse event management process, we can identify incidents that trigger the duty of candour procedure.
Each adverse event is reviewed to understand what happened and how we might improve the care we provide in the future. The level of review depends on the severity of the event as well as the potential for learning.
All staff receive training on duty of candour as part of their induction, so that they understand when it applies.
We know that adverse events can be distressing for staff as well as people who receive care. We have support available for all staff through our line management structure.
- What has changed as a result?
- Other information
Duty of candour is still relatively new to being in operation and it has been a year of learning and refining our existing adverse event management processes to include the duty of candour