Exam Pass Notes

Download (Word)

Use these notes for last-minute revision before the assessment. The legal thresholds for notifiable safety incidents referenced here are taken from England's CQC Regulation 20 for regulated adult social care providers. The practical behaviours covered - openness, apology, support, escalation, recording and learning - apply across UK care settings.

Key points to remember

• Duty of candour means being open when care has gone wrong: it requires timely, honest communication rather than silence or waiting for a complaint.
• The registered provider and registered manager hold statutory responsibility in England: frontline staff still play a central role in recognising incidents, escalating concerns, recording facts, and communicating honestly.
• Saying sorry matters: CQC states that offering an apology is not an admission of liability.
• Notifiable safety incidents in care homes have specific legal thresholds: these include serious harm, prolonged harm, death, permanent change to body structure, reduced life expectancy, or treatment required to prevent these outcomes.
• If you are unsure, escalate: staff should not decide legal thresholds alone; raise the concern promptly to a senior or the manager.
• Immediate actions matter: make the resident safe, inform the appropriate senior person, preserve evidence, record the incident promptly, and do not alter records to hide information.
• Relevant persons matter: if the resident lacks capacity or has died, candour may be with someone lawfully acting on their behalf, while still involving the resident as far as possible.
• Candour, complaints, safeguarding and learning can overlap: carrying out one process does not remove the need for the others.
• An open culture is necessary: staff must be able to speak up about concerns without fear of unfair retribution.
• UK frameworks differ: Scotland and Wales use their own duty of candour arrangements, and Northern Ireland follows a Being Open framework with different procedures.