Status update - 21 September 2026
Access Point of Care (APOC) is fully ready to connect to the NHS National Care Records Service (NCRS) for reasonable adjustments. We are currently awaiting final approval from NHS England to access their production API - this is the last step before the full sync capability goes live.
The NHS compliance deadline is 30 September 2026. If approval is not confirmed by that date, see If NHS approval is not confirmed by 30 September at the bottom of this article for guidance on how your organisation can record reasonable adjustments directly in NCRS from 1 October. We will update this page as soon as NHS approval is confirmed.
This article explains what the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag (RADF) is, what your organisation needs to do, and where Access Point of Care currently stands.
What is the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag?
Under the Equality Act 2010, care providers have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services equitably.
The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag (RADF) is the NHS's digital way of recording and sharing this information. NHS Information Standard DAPB4019, published December 2025, makes this a legal requirement for all publicly funded health and social care providers in England.
A RADF record captures three things:
The adjustments a client needs — for example, longer visits, easy-read information, or a carer being present
The client's impairments or disabilities, if they choose to share them
Their underlying conditions, if relevant
This information is held on the NHS National Care Records Service (NCRS) and is accessible to all health and care providers involved in a client's care.
What your organisation needs to do now
You should already have a process in place to identify and record the reasonable adjustment needs of your clients. If not, start now — this does not need to wait for a software update.
The NHS RADF action checklist sets out six steps: identify, record, flag, share, meet, and review. Steps one to five can be completed using your current APOC setup, using care plan notes and assessments to capture adjustment information and make it visible to staff.
NHS England and e-Learning for Health provide a free training module covering reasonable adjustments and the digital flag. We recommend all staff who access client records complete this before using the RADF feature.
What Access Point of Care is delivering
We are delivering full RADF compliance within Access Point of Care ahead of the 30 September 2026 deadline. This includes:
A structured Reasonable Adjustments section on each client record.
A persistent banner visible across all pages of the case file.
SNOMED CT coded impairments and adjustments, per the NHS dataset.
Consent and objection management.
Review date tracking.
FHIR API integration with NHS NCRS to send and receive RADF data.
A read-only adjustment summary on the mobile app at the point of visit delivery.
We have registered with NHS England and are in the final stage of the technical onboarding process, awaiting approval to access the production API.
If NHS approval is not confirmed by 30 September
The RADF feature in APOC requires access to the NHS production API - this covers identity verification, flag activation, and all data exchange with NCRS. Until NHS England grants this approval, the RADF feature in APOC will not be available to customers.
If approval is not confirmed by 30 September 2026, staff with the appropriate NHS role-based access can record and view reasonable adjustments directly in NCRS as an interim measure.
Recording reasonable adjustments directly in NCRS
The following official NHS guides explain how to create, view, update and delete a flag directly in NCRS:
Guide to Using the Reasonable Adjustment Flag in NCRS - how to create, view, update and delete a flag.
How to view or add a Reasonable Adjustment flag in NCRS - step-by-step guidance including RBAC access codes.
⚠️ Limitation when using NCRS directly: It is not possible to add underlying conditions directly in NCRS. This can only be completed once the APOC–NCRS connection is live.
We will update this page and notify customers as soon as NHS approval is confirmed and the RADF feature is available in APOC.