National Registration Authority (RA) and Smartcard Policy - elearning for healthcare
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National Registration Authority (RA) and Smartcard Policy

Frankie, 14 July 2016
National Registration Authority (RA) and Smartcard Policy

A new elearning resource on the National Registration Authority (RA) and Smartcard Policy is now available.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) designed this interactive elearning resource to help newly appointed RA Managers and their RA staff gain the appropriate level of understanding around the key areas of National RA Policy.

It also provides important information about verifying a healthcare professionals identity to the required standards, reaffirms the importance of compliance with local and national RA policy, the use and issuance of Smartcards and highlights any major changes as a result of the new guidelines and implementation of the new Care Identity Service (CIS), which was launched in February 2015 also by HSCIC.

CIS brings new Authentication, Directory and Smartcard Identity Registration services for secure access to health and social care data and is the system used by RA staff across England to register health professionals with a digital identity and an appropriate level of access on a ‘passcode protected’ Smartcard, which they will use to access patient data held on clinical and non-clinical Smartcard enabled systems.

Currently there are 1.1 million Smartcard holders/healthcare professionals across England and RAs are responsible for delivering a high quality RA service to these individuals.

To help RA staff deliver a good quality RA service it is recommended they complete this interactive elearning to gain the appropriate level of knowledge around the following areas:

  • Understand their responsibility as an RA Manager, RA Agent Advanced, RA Agent or RA Agent (ID Checker), RA Sponsor and Local Smartcard Administrator (LSA)
  • The importance of a Digital Identity and the ID checking/verification
  • What are the Acceptable Forms and Combinations of ID documentation to accept from anyone requesting a Smartcard
  • The importance of ensuring local RA Policy is in line with National RA Policy
  • Key information about the use, issuance and maintenance of Smartcards

It will take approximately 25 minutes to complete, including the 5 minute assessment at the end, which requires a score of 100% to gain the certificate that can be used as evidence for the National IG Toolkit.

Please note: The appointed RA Manager is responsible for delivering RA training to newly appointed RA staff and this elearning resource is designed to help them with that task and should be used as an enhancement to any locally delivered training rather than as a replacement.

For more information, visit: National Registration Authority (RA) and Smartcard Policy

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