Health and social care organisations in England and their suppliers should follow Government and information standards. Government standards are mandatory for the public sector. Information standards themselves are not mandatory unless required to fulfil law, Government regulation or policy (although this will change when new governance arrangements introduced by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 are in place). For example, in order for an organisation to be paid the commissioning standards must be followed.

For further information, please see:

• Managing standards in your organisation.
• Using the standards library.
• Baselines - groups of standards used to support specific implementations.
• Procuring with standards.
• Innovation and standards.
• Standards Enforcement in Procurement (STEP).
• NHS CFH data standards.

Note that Data Dictionary changes are now managed using a different process by NHS Connecting for Health. These are notified using Data Dictionary Change Notices (DDCNs).