Content guide - Standard for creating health content

This standard outlines some essential requirements and best practice guidance for creating high quality health content. It's designed for any organisation that produces health and care information.

1. Design a clear process for creating content and follow it

Essential

  • Follow a process for checking content and getting approval, including clinical approval.
  • Have a planned review cycle for all content so you keep it up to date and clinically accurate.
  • Make clear which organisation has published the content.
  • Be transparent about adverts and any potential conflicts of interest, such as sponsorship.

Best practice

  • Follow a clear, consistent, documented process, including version control and archiving.
  • Display the date the content was last checked and when it will be checked again.
  • Provide training and support so your team can follow the process.
  • Use the NHS identity guidelines and design system or follow your organisation's brand and style guidelines.
  • Set objectives and identify outcomes for your content and evaluate against them.
  • Invite feedback from users (the people who will use your content) so you can review or improve it.
  • Actively manage feedback and respond where appropriate.

2. Use relevant, up to date and recognised clinical evidence

Essential

  • Create content using high quality clinical evidence.
  • Get clinical and other relevant subject matter experts to review and approve content (as part of your process).
  • Check the evidence every time you review or update clinical content.
  • If you're translating into another language make sure the translation remains clinically accurate.

Best practice

  • Keep a record of sources of evidence you use.
  • Stay in touch with developments in clinical evidence and update content when evidence changes.

3. Comply with relevant laws and regulation

Essential

  • Follow copyright and licensing rules.
  • If relevant, put in place and follow policies for consent, data protection, confidentiality and safeguarding.

4. Focus on user needs

Essential

  • Develop content based on user and organisation needs.

Best practice

  • Consult with the people who are going to use your content.
  • Design and test your content to make sure it meets their needs.
  • Improve your content based on user feedback.
  • Involve colleagues and other key stakeholders in developing the content.

5. Make your content easy to use

Essential

  • Make sure your content and design are simple and clear.
  • Use concise, plain English so your content is easy to understand.

Best practice

  • Choose the most appropriate format for your users and the nature of your content, such as text, images or videos.
  • Make sure users can find your content, on the internet and on your website.
  • Make it easy for people to navigate to any other content they need, on your site or elsewhere.

6. Make your content inclusive and accessible

Essential

  • Consider how your content affects people with "protected characteristics" (Equality Act 2010).
  • Consider people who may have difficulty getting the healthcare they need, like Gypsies and Travellers or people who do not have English as a first language.
  • Think about groups who may be under-represented in making decisions about content, such as ethnic minorities or people with disabilities.
  • Make your content accessible to everyone who needs it (WCAG 2.2 AA for websites and mobile apps).

Best practice

  • Make health information easy to use for people who struggle to read and understand words and numbers.
  • Co-design or co-produce content with your users.

Service manual guidance that will help you meet the standard

Developing this standard

This standard, which we've developed with NHS England, replaces their former assessment and certification scheme known as the Information Standard, which has now closed.

We've carried out user research with a range of NHS organisations and other organisations that create health content. We also consulted the Patient Information Forum, a UK organisation that represents health information producers.

We believe information that is clear, accurate, evidence-based, up to date and easy to use allows people, patients and communities to become better informed and more involved in their health and care.

Help us improve this guidance

Share insights or feedback and take part in the discussion. We use GitHub as a collaboration space. All the information on it is open to the public.

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Read more about how to feedback or share insights.

If you have any questions, get in touch with the service manual team.

Updated: January 2024