The Accessible Information Standard (AIS) has been updated to include:
- a sixth ‘review stage’
- a self-assessment process to help providers meet the standard.
The NHS England (NHSE) Accessible Information Standard (AIS) describes how NHS and adult social care services should identify, record, flag, share, meet and review people’s information and communication needs.
All providers of NHS care or other publicly-funded adult social care must meet the AIS. Commissioners of NHS or social care must also follow this standard. All organisations must make reasonable adjustments for disabled people under the Equality Act 2010.
Read more about the Accessible Information Standard (AIS).
The AIS applies to people who use a service and have information or communication needs because of a disability, impairment or sensory loss. This also includes their carers and family members who are involved in their care and have information or communication support needs themselves.
The AIS covers any disability that affects a person’s ability to access, read or understand information or to communicate. This includes interpretation or translation for people whose first language is British Sign Language (BSL), for example. It does not cover these needs for spoken languages.
Websites are not covered by AIS.
Services that do not need to follow AIS:
must still make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010
may wish to use a similar approach when identifying and meeting people’s information needs.
Six steps of AIS
Step 1: Identify
How do you:
assess for disability related information or communication needs?
find out if people have any of these needs?
plan how it will meet those needs?
Step 2: Record
How do you record those identified needs clearly?
What systems are in place as part of the assessment and care planning process?
Can people record their own care needs when they access their own records online?
Step 3: Flag
How do you highlight or flag people’s information and communication needs in their records?
This could be in paper or electronic records. The chosen method must make it possible for all staff to quickly and easily be aware of and meet those needs.
Step 4: Share
Sometimes you need to share details of people’s information and communication needs with other health and social care services. This means that other services can also respond to the person's information and communication needs.
How do you do this (when you have consent to do so)?
Step 5: Meet
How do you:
make sure you meet people’s needs?
make sure that people receive information which they can access and understand?
arrange communication support if people need it?
For example, patients and people using a service should:
be able to contact (and be contacted by) services in accessible ways, such as via email, text message or Text Relay
receive information and correspondence in formats they can read and understand. This could be, for example, in audio, braille, easy read or large print formats
be supported by a communication professional at appointments if needed to support conversation. This could be a British Sign Language interpreter
get support from health and care staff and organisations to communicate. This could include help to lip-read or use a hearing aid.
Step 6: Review
How do organisations make sure people’s information and communication needs are kept up to date in their records and systems? For example, IT systems can remind staff to check people’s recorded needs are still correct when they update other information.
When people access their own records online, they should be able to:
review this information
ask for changes
update their own needs when appropriate.
This sixth step was added when the AIS was reviewed and updated in 2025. It was re-published with the NHSE Self-Assessment Framework to help organisations improve.
Our assessments
We will consider how well services meet the AIS as part of our assessment of the responsive key question.
Read more about our assessment framework.
We will focus on whether information and communication is accessible by talking to people who use the service and staff. We will also consider any information that we already have. For example, from people using the service who have contacted us to feedback about their care.
Where possible, we will review at least 1 person’s care, treatment and support plans and/or records if the AIS should support them.
Adult social care services also need to complete an annual provider information return. We will ask how you are meeting the AIS as part of this return.
The AIS is not assured by CQC, that is the role of the commissioner. However, we do consider the performance of organisations in meeting people’s needs in our assessments. If we find that an organisation is not meeting accessible communication and information needs, we may take action.
The AIS relates to several of our fundamental standards, including:
person-centred care
dignity and respect
consent
safety
safeguarding from abuse
food and drink
premises and equipment
complaints
good governance
staffing
fit and proper staff
duty of candour.
The NHSE AIS self-assessment framework helps organisations understand how well they meet standard. It helps them publish a performance rating and action plans to address gaps in provision. It also helps organisations, commissioners and CQC to judge performance and improve checks.