Background

The assurance process for digital social care records has been open to suppliers since January 2021. The majority of the assurance process has been funded by DHSC.

Outline Plan

We want to notify all DSCR suppliers who may be considering undertaking assurance that, from October 2027, we intend to move away from funding the assurance process centrally.

Summary of Change

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Full Specification

The assurance process for digital social care records has been open to suppliers since January 2021. The majority of the assurance process has been funded by DHSC. We wanted to notify all DSCR suppliers who may be considering undertaking assurance that, from October 2027, we intend to move away from funding the assurance process centrally. Ahead of and alongside this change we are also intending that there will be an incremental shift in the way in which we undertake assurance, moving to a process that should be more efficient whilst maintaining the same compliance threshold.

This means that if you are considering going through the assurance process you may wish to do so while it is still centrally funded. After central funding ceases suppliers will need to pay for their own assurance. We will publish more details on the new approach and likely costs closer to the time but wanted to provide sufficient notice for suppliers to go through the entire process before the new model is introduced.

If you have already been through the assurance process we will continue to undertake checks to ensure that you remain compliant, for example ensuring that cyber essentials plus certification remains up to date. Where new standards are introduced the assurance process may be funded but this will happen on a case by case basis. The assurance model for any new standard will form part of the engagement on the standard and the decision making about when it is added to the standards roadmap.

Assurance Approach

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