The NHS doubles-down with a DTAC compliance audit

NHS DTAC Compliance Audit

The word on the grapevine is that NHS England (NHSE) and NHS Improvement (NHSI) are doubling-down on the compliance for the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC), moving it from a ‘nice to have’ assessment to a ‘need to have’ position.

In the last few weeks, a survey was sent to NHS providers asking them to audit the technology suppliers they have contracts with and identify those which they know to be DTAC compliant – and not.

I suspect that many project managers will be dispatched within NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Systems (ICS) to contact suppliers about their DTAC compliance and pull this list together. Unfortunately, that is likely to prove difficult as many of the suppliers will either:

1. Not have the evidence to hand
2. Think that DTAC does not apply to them
3. Be unsure how to evidence compliance.

As Governance professionals involved in assessing DTAC compliance for the NHS, we have designed a system to relieve the NHS of the burden of trawling through various files and emails with several attachments to download. We provide a means by which technology suppliers can evidence their status in a convenient and manageable way, paving the way for a more seamless approach to compliance where health technology suppliers and NHS providers can continue to close deals and do business without governance slowing them down.

The path we have taken at 8foldGovernance has been designed to make advice on existing compliance free for any health technology supplier we work with. We allow prospective clients to book free consultation calls with us so we can assess their current position – which in most cases is usually straightforward. From there, we offer advice and guidance on which elements suppliers can simply complete on their own, and which require more complex support and can be outsourced to our professional services teams to complete on their behalf.

We have designed a bespoke 8foldGovernance DTAC Portal that is populated for each of our clients to clearly demonstrate and display their DTAC status, along with all the evidence required. Clients can easily share links with any NHS or Social Care providers that they are working with to quickly demonstrate compliance and provide the evidence of this via their unique DTAC Portal.

The way DTAC is evolving is a little dynamic at the moment which is no bad thing, but here at 8foldGovernance we prefer to be paid to do people’s homework for them, rather than charging to mark it! 8foldGovernance staff are industry respected, top-flight information governance, cyber security and clinical safety professionals and we will continue to monitor any changes and provide the most efficient and effective support to enable our clients to achieve and maintain their DTAC compliance.