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Accessibility Statement

This statement applies to the website: www.tsh.scot.nhs.uk 

This website is managed by the State Hospital’s Communications Service. 

In the context of The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018, “essential to providing services” refers to content that is necessary for the public sector body to carry out its functions or provide a service to the public. This means that if a document, form, or webpage is required for someone to access a service, complete a process, or exercise a legal right, it must be made accessible.

The State Hospital is unique in that it is a public sector body but not a public-facing service in the conventional sense. It provides specialist high-secure psychiatric care for patients detained under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, meaning its primary function is to serve patients under detention, rather than offering services directly to the general public (1) Members of the public cannot freely access or use its services; admission is strictly based on legal processes, (2) Its core function is specialist inpatient care, not public engagement or walk-in services, (3) Unlike a general hospital or GP practice, it does not provide health services to the wider population.

However, it is still a publicly funded body with some public-facing elements, such as information for carers, visitors, volunteers and suppliers. This information is fully accessible.

Commitment to Accessibility

We aim to make accessible as many of our documents as possible, to promote inclusivity and good practice, even if they are not strictly required under the regulations.

This means you should be able to:

  • Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard.
  • Listen to most of the website using a screen reader.
  • Resize text up to 200% without loss of content or functionality.
  • Read content clearly, with suitable contrast between text and background.
  • Use the website across various screen sizes and devices, including mobile phones and tablets.

We have also simplified our website text to improve readability.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

Our website is designed to be accessible and inclusive for all users. We are confident that the main features of our website meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA requirements as does information for stakeholders involved in patient care i.e. essential to providing services. These include carers, visitors, volunteers and suppliers.

With the exception of the non-compliances listed below, all content on our website has passed accessibility checks. However we cannot guarantee that all PDFs contain the document default language although this has not been flagged in accessibility checks. Nor can we guarantee that all documents have a fully logical structure, as they rely on auto-generated tags and headings, though they have passed accessibility checks. Similarly, while tables and lists have also met accessibility standards, we cannot ensure that every element is fully identified in every document. We will continue to manually check these areas, even where they are not flagged by automated checking.

What to do if you can’t access parts of this website

We recognise the need to ensure all stakeholders are supported to understand information about the services we provide. Based on what is proportionate and reasonable, we can provide information / documents in alternative formats and are happy to discuss with you the most practical and cost-effective format suitable for your needs. Some of the services we are able to access include interpretation, translation, large print, Braille, tape recorded material, sign language, use of plain English / images. If you require information in another format, please email TSH.PersonCentredImprovementTeam@nhs.scot

Reporting accessibility problems with this website 

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of our website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please email tsh.comms@nhs.scot 

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). 

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS). 

Feedback and Contact Information

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The State Hospital is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance Status

The State Hospital’s website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

WCAG Success Criterion 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)

Videos – Our videos have software generated captions and descriptions. Plans are in place to check and correct manually. This work will be complete by December 2025 if not before. Work commenced May 2025.

Some PDFs published after 23 September 2018 – Primarily our Board Annual Report & Accounts 2023/24, Standing Documentation, our Board Papers, and our Policies. The following criterion applies to all:

WCAG Success Criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content
WCAG Success Criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
WCAG Success Criterion 3.1.1 Language of Page
WCAG Success Criterion 4.5.1 Contrast

The Board Annual Report & Accounts 2023/24 and Standing Documentation (Scheme of Delegation, Standing Orders, Board Code of Conduct) cannot be made accessible as they are national templates.

The Board Papers will be made accessible by April 2026 however many of these contain national templates that we have no control over, therefore elements of the Board Papers will remain non-compliant.

To clarify, Policies before January 2025 are not currently accessible. However, they will be made accessible as part of their three-year review cycle. By January 2028 all policies will be fully accessible, however many of these contain national templates that we have no control over, therefore elements of Policies will remain non-compliant. This process commenced in January 2025 and is going well.

Not essential to providing services

We do not consider these areas of non-compliance as essential to providing services as they are primarily for transparency rather than directly enabling individuals to access or use a service, and they do not typically contain information required for the public to complete a transaction, request a service, or exercise a legal right. Nevertheless, our aim going forward is to make these documents accessible as they become available.

Non-accessible State Hospital produced documents will remain on our website until they are made accessible in line with the timeframes above, as they continue to provide valuable information to those visiting our website. Non-accessible documents outwith our control, e.g. national templates, will also remain on our website in support of our commitment to openness and transparency.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Exempt

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing services. The State Hospital has four documents on its website from the early 2000s – see About Us page under heading Hospital Modernisation. We do not plan to remediate these.

Exempt 

Live video streams are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. We do not have any live video streams.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

The accessibility of this website will be reviewed annually and we will update this statement with any relevant changes. Work is ongoing to:

  • Inform staff of the importance of accessibility and compliance.
  • Organise Hospital-wide accessibility training for staff – a Governance Framework for Corporate Documentation and Accessibility was produced in May 2025. This guide for staff, focuses on making documents accessible at the point of creation.
  • Regularly audit content and fix issues when found.
  • Fix any videos, PDFs or Word documents that are essential to providing our services.
  • Ensure new documents that are essential to providing our services are accessible, unless it is deemed important to publish information before the standards can be met in full.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 19 February 2025. It was last reviewed on 7 May 2025. 

This website was last tested against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard in February 2025. The test was carried out by Michael Fraser from Daysix Ltd.

The site was tested in a ‘logged out’ capacity, using Chrome browser and a combination of manual inspection, developer tools such as Lighthouse and Accessibility Tree, and additional third party tools such as contrast checking, and WAVE browser extension.

We tested a selection of site pages including but not limited to:

These pages gave a good example of each one of our templates, and included images, multimedia content and interactive elements.