Trevor Single, Chief Executive of the TSA, announced today at the TSA conference that their forthcoming integrated telecare and telehealth code of practice will be open to non-members.
Comment: This is good news. At present, only members can apply to be accredited against the Telecare Code of Practice. This has two adverse effects: one, no one can tell whether non-accredited companies are as competent or not as accredited ones and two, some companies feel ‘compelled’ to be members simply to maintain their accreditation. It will be much healthier for the TSA to have to demonstrate the value of membership without the stick and carrot of accreditation.
Excellent news. FAST has been encouraging the TSA to open up the Code of Practice since we first mapped all the service standards in the assistive technology field in 2005. Now members of the public who are receiving services will be able to identify what standards the TSA accredited companies should be complying with – this I’d suggest is where you get real teeth and transparency. Congratulations to the TSA for making the decision.
Keren