Involving people and their families when things go wrong in health and care
Current guidance suggests health and care providers explain the incident, offer an apology, and a commitment to prevent recurrence.
Being open (duty of candour)
Scotland is committed to a person-centred approach within its health and social services. This includes a duty of candour towards service users and families. This means being open and honest, telling people the truth when something goes wrong. Typical of service users and families, who are involved in safety incidents or make complaints about services is the stated intent that they “don’t want anyone else to go through what they have experienced”. Inherent in this sentiment is the desire that services learn from feedback, safety incidents, complaints and near misses where unnecessary harm is caused (or could have been) when interacting with health care services.
Duty of Candour training pack available at this link https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/24970
Involving people and families
There is growing recognition among health care providers and policy makers that when things go wrong, a complaint or near miss, the person involved or their families should be heard and participate in the review process. Guidance on how best to involve people and families in a caring and compassionate manner is set out in APICCTHS model co-created with people who have experienced and adverse event in healthcare (see below).
The APICCTHS model is a structured, compassionate framework designed to guide healthcare professionals in meaningfully involving patients and families in adverse event reviews. It was co-developed with people who have experienced harm in healthcare and aims to promote openness, learning, and healing.
Read about what matters to the person and their familieshttps://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/5/e060158
In the following films
Roseanna talks about the importance of apology and serious adverse event review.
Fred talks about his son Adam and shares his experience of a serious adverse event review. Here is Adam's story.
Compassionate Communication Skills Training Programme
Are you involved in adverse event reviews?
Interested in the use of compassionate communication skills to involve people and families in the review process?
Our workshops focus on empathy and compassion to redress the power imbalance by putting people and their families at the heart of the review.
April 2026 cohort
This cohort is now full.
September 2026 cohort
Places are available. The deadline for applications is 14th August 2026.
Training will take place on:
23rd September 2026
24th September 2026
30th September 2026
1st October 2026
Participants must be able to attend all four dates.
An application form and a flyer with more information about the programme can be downloaded below.
Completed application forms should be submitted to nes.personcentredcare@nhs.scot
You can also find below the evaluation report covering the first four cohorts.
Should you have any questions about the programme, please email nes.personcentredcare@nhs.scot
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Compassionate Communication Skills Cohort 14 Application Form
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Compassionate Communications Flyer
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Evaluation of compassionate communication skills training
APICCTHS model (guidance on including the person and their family)
Apology, person-centred, inclusive, communication, closing the loop, timing, heart of review, support for staff (APICCTHS)
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APICCTHS model leaflet. Involving patients and families in adverse event reviews: Using compassionate communication skills
Here are 3 short animations providing more information on the APICCTHS model.