Warning

Every toolkit should have an “About this toolkit” tile which provides:

Transparency around compliance with the quality assurance criteria set out in Parts 1-3 of the "Requesting a new RDS toolkit" Standard Operating Procedure. This includes:

  • Ownership, responsibilities and governance of the toolkit
  • Content management and updating processes and responsibilities
  • Legal compliance  e.g., copyright, General Data Protection Regulations
  • Information on purpose, audience and scope of the toolkit.

National terms and conditions

The Right Decisions platform includes global terms and conditions in the “About this site” section.  Individual "About this toolkit" sections should provide a link to this national information.  Individual "About" sections should not duplicate this national information.

 

Key information in "About this toolkit"

As a minimum, your "About this toolkit" section should contain the following information:

1.Purpose and audience

2. Key contact(s), including email address. This can be a generic rather than a personal contact.

3.If the toolkit is or includes a medical device, the regulatory information should be referenced in this section (UK CA mark, manufacturer details, Instructions for Use.)

You can also include a justification here for your toolkit or elements within it not being a medical device. The RDS team and InnoScot Health can help with this.

4. Privacy statement if the toolkit processes or stores person-identifiable data.

Your information governance department will help you in constructing a privacy statement if that is needed.

5.Content governance:

  • Key author, reviewer and approver roles
  • Details of clinical review of content at point of publication.
  • Arrangements for review and updating of content - including responsibilities and planned review date(s).
  • Outline of process used for systematic sourcing and evaluation of evidence to underpin the toolkit.

6. Corporate governance

  • Details of the governance body and process which approved content and the toolkit at point of go-live.
  • Details of the governance arrangements for ongoing development and updating of the toolkit.
  • Confirmation that any guidance within the toolkit that references medicines has been signed off by the local Area Drug and Therapeutics Committee for territorial Boards or an equivalent governance group for national resources.

7. Confirmation that the toolkit meets the following additional quality assurance criteria:

  • Risks to safety of patients/service users have been identified and mitigated.
  • Functional testing, usability testing and user acceptance testing have been carried out.
  • A plan has been defined for monitoring and acting on feedback and complaints.

8. Copyright 

a. Confirmation that the content within the toolkit complies with copyright legislation and that permission to embed content from external sources has been obtained where required.

b. If Flaticon images have been used, a statement that the RDS use of Flaticon images is covered by the licence paid by Tactuum as software provider of the RDS platform.

c. Copyright statement for your toolkit:

A copyright statement asserts the rights of the owner of the work and can also provide pre-emptive permission for copying or re-use of the work by others.

Example 1:

Copyright © NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 2023 (This excludes the works of 3rd parties as listed below. This information needs only to be included if there are other works included within your content)

Note: this is a basic statement of copyright, and assumes no other copyright subsists in the work. Also note that the owner of the work is separate from the author of the work. All work-based products will fall under the ownership of the employer.

Example 2: Creative Commons licences

Creative Commons licences give copyright owners a standardised way to grant others permission to re-use and adapt their creative work under copyright law. There are six Creative Commons licences, giving different levels of permission for re-use and adaptation. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. (This excludes the works of 3rd parties as listed below. This information only needs only to be included if there are other works included within your content)

Note: you can choose your Creative Commons licence here Share your work - Creative Commons . The Creative Commons site also provides HTML code for the licence that can be embedded within the site. You can use these in conjunction with Example 1, so asserting your rights, but also providing permission under licence.

9. Accessibility statement

This should confirm that the content within your toolkit has been checked for accessibility. Any content that does not meet accessibility standards should be highlighted here.  Note that accessibility of the RDS platform technology is confirmed in the RDS accessibility statement in "About this site." 

See "Making content accessible" standard operating procedure for more information.

 

Disclaimer

There is an RDS disclaimer in the footer of every page - see Terms and conditions for users  and Terms and conditions for content providers.

Your organisation may add a toolkit-specific disclaimer to make clear the responsibility of the organisation/board and end user, and also what they are not responsible for.

Any additional information in a local “About this toolkit” section should complement and augment the national disclaimer.

 

Example 1

The content of this toolkit is specific to the Board, and it may not be applicable to other local healthcare areas or practices. While the Board makes reasonable efforts to ensure that the information accessed via the App is correct, the toolkit is provided ‘as is and the Board does not warrant the accuracy and completeness of the material accessed via the toolkit.

The Board may make changes to the toolkit at any time without notice. Some of the material accessed via the toolkit may be out of date, and the Board makes no commitment to update such material.

Where the toolkit contains links to other sites and or resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for information only. The Board has no control over and no liability in respect of the content of these sites and resources.

Accordingly, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the toolkit is made available by the Board on the basis that the Board excludes all representations, warranties, conditions and other terms (including, without limitation, the conditions implied by law of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and the use of reasonable care and skill) which, but for this disclaimer, might have effect in relation to the toolkit.

Users assume all responsibility for using the information accessed via the toolkit.

 

Example 2

“NHS xxx hopes that the information in this toolkit will be useful to its healthcare professionals, but it accepts no responsibility and offers no warranties for the content or your use of it, as far as the law allows us to exclude such liability. 

Clinical knowledge is constantly changing. As new information become available, changes in treatment, procedures, equipment and the use of drugs become necessary. The developers and contributors have taken care to ensure that the information given is correct and current. However, users of this resource are strongly advised to confirm that the information complies with the latest legislation and standards of practice. 

All use of this resource is subject to Scots law and the jurisdiction of the Scottish courts and is subject to this disclaimer. Any views given on the site are not necessarily those of NHS xxx or anyone connected with us. 

NHS xxx is not responsible for the content of external websites which link to or are linked to by this toolkit. Some external links may be to websites that also offer commercial services. If a link to a particular website is included on our site, it does not mean that NHS xxx officially endorses that website, its owners, products or services.“

 

Reliability of information

The text below can be used to augment the general information above.

The <insert organisation name> uses its best efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of information on this toolkit in accordance with the policies defined for this toolkit. However, no guarantees are made that the information contained on this toolkit or on linked websites is accurate, complete, and current at any given time. Information presented on this toolkit or associated sites may be changed at any time. The resources made available on this toolkit are intended to assist health and social care professionals and citizens in <insert organisation name > and are for information only. The toolkit is not intended in any way to replace the advice of health and care professionals.

Nothing on this toolkit is intended to constitute advice. Specific advice should be sought in specific situations from a properly qualified health or care professional.

Users of this toolkit agree to inform the <insert organisation name> using the Feedback form if they should come across any material contained which they consider to be potentially in breach of any of the published <insert organisation name > policies or of any relevant legislation for the appropriate remedial action to be taken.

 

Editorial Information

Last reviewed: 24/09/2023

Next review date: 30/04/2025

Author(s): Ann Wales, Michelle Kirkwood.

Version: 1.0

Reviewer name(s): Ann Wales.