The charity, the Disabled Living Foundation, has been named as one of the bodies chosen to try out a scheme designed to ensure good quality information is available across the health and social care sectors. Forty organisations have been selected from more than 120 applications to pilot the information accreditation scheme for the Department of Health.

The scheme will act as a quality mark so that both professionals and the public will know that the information they are using is reliable. The scheme also aims to tackle variations in the quality of
available health and social care information. It will accredit the source of information rather than the information itself and will include measures to help those producing information to raise their standards.

DLF will test the system alongside other organisations from the commercial and public sectors and will have the opportunity to gain accreditation during the testing phase. If it is successful it will become one of the first members of the scheme when it launches fully in 2009.

Health Minister Ann Keen said that with so much information available it could be difficult for both the public and professionals to know what could be relied upon. “The work of these test sites will be invaluable in providing knowledge and insight for
organisations considering joining the scheme in the future,” she said.

The Disabled Living Foundation will be involved in testing the scheme’s standards, sharing its experiences, developing case studies and helping to develop the visual identity of the quality mark.