What is the Professional Duty of Candour? 

Basically, it means being honest when something goes wrong - we have supported the introduction of a statutory duty of candour for organisations that provide healthcare. We believe there are immense benefits to be had for the care and treatment of people in the health and care system if it is open, transparent and honest. Professionals also have a duty of candour under the codes set by their professional regulator. Download our latest report evaluating the progess professional regulators have made in embedding the professionals' duty to be candid to patients.

Telling patients the truth when something goes wrong

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Related material

See our infographic - summarising  some of the key findings from our report: Telling patients the truth when something goes wrong. You can also read some of our most recent blogs on this topic or our compendium on candour which brings all our blogs together in one document:

• When the duty of candour becomes personal
• A tale of two duties (of candour)
• The duty of candour - where are we now?
• Truth will out? Two sides of the candour coin
• The professional duty of candour: widening the lens
• The professional duty of candour is a commendable principle but to what extent can regulators influence their registrants to put it into practice?
• The role of regulators in encouraging a Speak Up culture

What stops people speaking up?

Read our report on factors that can encourage and discourage people from speaking up when they have concerns about where they work.

Silence is golden? Why do people stay silent when something bad happens at work? 

When failures of care occur, it’s often discovered that people knew that there were problems but didn’t speak up about it. Why did they stay silent? In this animation colleagues from the European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology offer a perspective from work psychology about why this happens and what can be done to remedy it.

Useful resources to help report concerns

Our research in practice

Find out more about our research work in practice and how it can contribute to improving regulation in this short case study.

What's the difference?

There are two duties of candour which can be referred to in the context of health and social care: one is for organisations and one is for professionals. The organisational duty of candour is a a statutory duty and  applies to any organisation carrying out health and/or social care activities which are regulated by the Care Quality Commission. You can find out more about it from the CQC's website.