Concordat to reduce the burden of inspection

Information about the concordats for both England and Wales, which aim to reduce the burden of inspection on frontline healthcare staff.

Concordat for England

On 24 June 2004 the Healthcare Commission published an agreement between the main healthcare inspection, review and audit bodies in England.

The Concordat commits each organisation to a set of principles which aim to support improvement in health services while minimising disruption and duplication, ensure that information is shared appropriately and encourage joint inspections.

Alongside the Concordat, the commission has published a supporting document, 'Making a difference', which sets out a series of initiatives and early progress in coordinating inspection in health services.

Concordat website (opens new window)

Concordat between bodies inspecting, regulating and auditing healthcare: Working in partnership (pdf 1124kb) (opens new window)

Making a difference (PDF, 4721K) (opens new window)

Concordat for Wales

External review bodies inspecting, regulating, and auditing health and social care in Wales have developed and agreed a set of principles and practices (a Concordat) to support the improvement of services for patients, service users and carers and to eliminate any unnecessary burdens of external review.
The Concordat was published 12 May 2005.

Concordat for Wales - English (PDF, 429K) (opens new window)

Concordat for Wales - Welsh (PDF, 450K) (opens new window)

Further information about the Concordat for Wales - English (PDF, 159K) (opens new window)

Further information about the Concordat for Wales - Welsh (PDF, 158K) (opens new window)

Central contact point for chief executives

As part of implementing the concordat, we have established a central point for chief executives of NHS trusts in England to draw attention to any concerns or observations about the planning or handling of inspections.  Chief executives can contact the Healthcare Commission at the following page:

Contact us page (opens new window)

The Commission will alert the relevant organisation(s) to the issue and provide feedback on action taken or comment on the observations.  We aim to respond to enquiries within 10 working days. 

Please note that any reactions to the findings of inspections should be submitted or raised with the relevant organisation in the usual way.

Inspectors' gateway control

The aim of the inspectors' gateway is to coordinate, streamline and reduce the volume of communications to the NHS from inspecting and review bodies.  Bodies involved are the Healthcare Commission, Audit Commission, Commission for Social Care Inspection, Mental Health Act Commission, National Audit Office and NHS Litigation Authority.

These organisations have adopted a set of principles aimed at reducing communications with the NHS and to coordinate more efficiently requests for information.  The principles adopted include:

• guidance should be streamlined and properly targeted to ensure essential information is not missed
• documents should have statements of purpose and executive summaries
• duplicate requests for information should be avoided

The gateway arrangement will initially cover national communications (by email, website and hard copy) to the NHS including:

• requests for information (but not currently data collections)
• letters to trusts/Strategic Health Authority Chief Executives
• consultation documents

We will be looking to extend the gateway to include data collections, surveys and toolkits.  If you have any questions about the inspectors' gateway, please refer to the following form:

Inspectors gateway form (opens new window)

Regional Concordat evaluation surveys

The Healthcare Commission in June 2004 published an agreement between the main bodies that inspect, review and audit healthcare in England, known as the Concordat. The purpose of the Concordat is to establish a number of principles which aim to ensure that healthcare regulators work together in order to reduce unnecessary burden on healthcare providers; for example, by co-ordinating joint inspection visits, where appropriate, sharing data and information, and avoiding duplicate requests for the same information from healthcare providers.

Concordat website (opens new window)

Back to top