Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department issues on the training NHS staff should receive on (a) assistance dogs and (b) supporting blind and visually impaired people.

Under the Equality Act 2010, health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged, including disabled people with assistance dogs.

National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers must comply with the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) to meet the communication needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including blind and visually impaired people. NHS England has completed a review of the AIS to help ensure that everyone’s communication needs are met in health and care provision. The review considered the effectiveness of the current AIS, how the standard is implemented and enforced in practice, and identified recommendations for improvement. The revised standard will be published in due course.

Following publication, NHS England will continue work to support implementation with awareness raising, communication and engagement and updated e-learning modules on the AIS to ensure NHS staff are better aware of the standard and their roles and responsibilities in implementing it. Assistance dogs are not covered within the scope of the AIS.