Learning to adapt in a changing landscape
“Across NHS and social care services, it has been an unusual and extremely challenging year. A global pandemic has taken hold, putting services under tremendous strain. For both the wider health and care system and our own organisation, innovation has been the catalyst for survival”
Achievements this year
All of our work is grounded in our commitment to creating truly integrated services, which can better support the needs of people.
COVID-19 guidance
Guidance to support the recording of COVID-19 information in care records.
Supporting social care
Sharing information between social care and health services.
Core record standard completed
A person's complete care record from birth to end of life
Pharmacy standards in action
Transfering information between community pharmacists and GPs
Outpatients letter standard in action
Sharing information between social care and health services.
Pharmacogenomics
Using pharmacogenomic information when prescribing medicines
Doctor's Download
Online consulation exploring how digital changes impact doctors at work
Pathology
Standardisiong pathology information for blood science tests and results
Apps accreditation
Accreditation for Apps to identify if they are safe and effective to use
Digitising historical GP records
National consultation involving professionals, patients and the public
Ambulance handover published
Managing information when care is transferred from ambulances to emergency departments
“As remote services become increasingly common, information will truly be the backbone of the system, and a vital tool for the job”
Prof. Maureen Baker CBE, Chair of PRSB
In numbers
People helped us with our social care consultation
New Twitter followers - up 25% with more than 768,600 tweet views!
People completed our survey on digitising historical GP records
Looking ahead to 2020/21
“In addition to continuing the important work we do in standards, we will be looking at other areas where our unique infrastructure can benefit health and care. Covid-19 has highlighted the importance of using apps and other digital health technologies to help people self-manage symptoms and recover safely at home while being monitored locally.” Lorraine Foley, CEO
Community-based mental health care
Providing mental health care closer to home and ensuring people with enduring mental health problems experience better joined up physical and mental health care are vital to improving their life chances. Care plans are crucial to making this a reality for people with severe mental health problems. If the information about their ongoing support can be shared digitally, it will mean that people are better able to report on their own conditions and work with clinicians and social workers to manage their wellbeing.
The PRSB is supporting this national programme, by evaluating the existing information in our digital care and support plan, to determine what other specific information needs to be shared for those living with complex mental health conditions. New standards for a community mental health plan will mean information can be transferred more readily between different services, ensuring that people have the support they need in place to manage their care.
Shared decision making
Shared decision making ensures that individuals are supported to make health and care decisions that are right for them based on their aims and goals. It is a collaborative process in which a clinician or care professional supports a person to reach a decision about their treatment or care. It is a cornerstone of personalised care which health and care services in the UK and internationally are aiming to deliver.
There is currently no recognised standard for recording information in a person’s record about the process of shared decision making. PRSB members have identified this as a key priority and initiated a project to standardise shared decision making
Shared decision making should improve relationships between professionals and people using services and ensure people are more involved in decisions about their care and health generally. At its heart shared decision making is about ensuring people have a clear understanding of the benefits and risks of treatment options. Greater use of shared decision making should also reduce variations in care that are not warranted and ensure our limited resources are used more effectively across the health and care system.
By creating a PRSB standard that can be implemented in digital systems, we will enable consistency, quality and interoperability. In due course, the decision making can also link to digitised NICE guidance enabling the whole clinical support process to be automated and streamlined.
Patient network

We will diversify the groups we work with to establish how data can better meet the goals of individuals, as well as health and care providers. Through this network we will determine people’s priorities for information sharing and access, as well as campaigning for a more person-centered approach throughout the entire system.
End of life care
The NHSE Palliative End of Life Care team is launching a five-year programme to improve palliative and end of life care. The PRSB is a participant in the digital workstream and has been asked to refresh the existing end of life care system standard.
We will be carrying out a review on recording, accessing and sharing end of life care information. We will be engaging with numerous stakeholders from different end of life care settings, including clinical staff and vendors.
The NHS Sponsorship Board
The PRSB has established a new sponsorship board with NHSX, NHS Digital and NHS England/Improvement, which we aim to grow and develop this year. The board will discuss both ongoing work that’s been commissioned, as well as potential standards that could be developed in future. We are hoping to get involvement from all four nations, as well as representation from the CQC and the Department of Health and Social Care.
This will tie in the work of PRSB to strategic discussions at a national level, as well as giving a voice to our member organisations at the top table, and allowing us to develop a longer term work programme which supports sustainability.
The sponsorship board will have representation from NHSX, NHSD, NHS England/Improvement and AoMRC, and we aim to get more involvement from the UK’s leading health and care bodies in the months to come.
The PRSB website
This year we have plans to redevelop the website. The main changes will impact how the standards are viewed so that the information is more accessible. We have been consolidating all our standards in Art Decor so that we have a reference library of standards that are up to date and maintained with consistency across the whole.
We understand that lots of people access our page, from patients to frontline professionals and data specialists. We want to ensure that everyone can find the information they need as quickly and clearly as possible. This will also include the introduction of a more comprehensive section for patients, so they can become more aware of our work and how to get involved in projects.
Contact us
The Professional Record Standards Body
7-14, CAN Borough, Great Dover St, London SE1 4YR
www.theprsb.org