Meeting the Standard? A review of compliance with the Accessible Information Standard in GP Practice

The AIS was launched in 2016 with the aim “to ensure that patients with communication needs receive accessible information and appropriate communication support, so they can access services independently, and make decisions about their health, wellbeing, care and treatment”. By law, all organisations that provide NHS care or adult social care are expected to follow this Standard.

Through our membership of local people and the local Voluntary and Community Sector, it was understood that compliance with the AIS was poor across health and care services in Manchester.

Work on this project began in May 2025 where it was decided that all GP Practice should be assigned to one of three groups based on their geographical location; North, Central or South Manchester. The breakdown of which PCN area represents which of the three geographical locations.

Following our visits to each PCN, all practice were provided with an individual report detailing their findings and score as well as a document containing accurate contact details for many AIS provider organisation in Manchester. Furthermore, each Practice were encouraged to send HWM further evidence of how they comply with the AIS. 

When HWM had calculated an overall score for each practice after our initial visit, we created a league table which was shared with the relevant Practice Managers.

In collaboration with Manchester Deaf Centre, Manchester Disability Collaborative, Manchester People First and Manchester City Council, HWM created a certification which a Practice may be awarded, based on their score following our review. This certification will be distributed to the GP Practice who we have assessed as compliant with the AIS.

Overall we found that a significant number of GP Practice had an understanding of the AIS. This rose following our visits. Moreover:

• Compliance with the AIS among GP Practice increased threefold following our intervention.
• Awareness of advocacy services was shockingly low however HWM helped to improve this awareness by providing accurate contact details to the appropriate services.
• Resistance to this initiative was overcome by perseverance in the provision of information to Practice Managers and encouragement to take park

We were able to conclude that this review and subsequent support has had a significant effect on increasing compliance with the AIS. Moreover, perseverance in the face of resistance to this form of intervention is best conducted in the spirit of cooperation, collaboration and overall assistance in achieving the standard.

We recommended that increasing the level of compliance by GP practice needs to be a continuous process and the pass mark must not be considered as the completion of this process. Moreover, a training programme led by local and lived experienced based organisations like Breakthrough UK and Manchester People First should be offered to the wider health and care system.

You can read our full list of findings, conclusions and recommendations by clicking the link below.

You can also view the AIS League Table using the link below that.