National chaperone policy for healthcare (England)

30. DHSC fully supports the use of chaperones for children, young people and adults at risk, when using healthcare services. To support organisations, NHS England has developed a chaperone guidance note which sets out clear principles of chaperoning and includes a number of examples of good practice chaperone policies which can be applied across a range of healthcare settings

31. All acute, community and primary care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are required to have active chaperone policies and protocols, which are regularly reviewed through scrutiny at provider organisation Boards or, in the case of primary care, via GP contract reviews. CQC assesses providers’ policies and protocols on their inspection visits.

32. These locally- owned protocols are based on policies developed by the Royal Colleges and other national clinical networks to ensure they represent best practice and are rightly tailored to meet local need but retaining common principles. Whilst DHSC fully supports this approach, its role is not to set these policies and protocols.

33. DHSC will seek assurance from NHS England and CQC that the relevant organisations have chaperone protocols in place to safeguard children, young people and vulnerable adults in their care.

All acute, community and primary care providers registered with the CQC are required to have chaperone policies and protocols, which are regularly reviewed through scrutiny at provider organisation Boards or, in the case of primary care, via GP contract reviews. NHS England has developed chaperone guidance notes which set out clear principles of chaperoning and include examples of good practice from different NHS organisations. The notes have been developed by safeguarding experts and commissioners across a range of healthcare settings and subjected to robust legal scrutiny and internal governance through NHS England’s National Safeguarding Steering Group. The guidance notes were signed off by the NHS England and NHS Improvement Executive team in May 2019. They are now on the website and have been disseminated through the extensive communication channels of NHS England and NHS Improvement which reaches all sectors, organisations, and clinicians across the NHS. This will ensure that they are mainstreamed into existing safeguarding assurance policy, processes and procedures. DHSC will continue to require the CQC to assess providers’ policies and protocols on their inspection visits.

On 22 July 2019, the UK Government stated that NHS England had developed chaperone guidance notes which set out clear principles of chaperoning and examples of good practice. The UK Government also stated that the Department for Health and Social Care will continue to require the Care Quality Commission to assess providers’ policies and protocols on their inspection visits.