Status update - 29 October 2026
We are waiting for guidance from NHS England on when we can enable the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag (RADF) connection to the NHS National Care Records Service (NCRS) in Access Care Planning. The RADF feature is not yet available to customers, and the NHS compliance date of 30 September 2026 has passed. NHS England has not yet confirmed a new date.
We will update this article as soon as we have news from NHS England. Last updated: 29 October 2026.
This article explains what the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag (RADF) is, what your organisation needs to do, and where Access Care Planning 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 ACP 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 the RADF feature in ACP includes
The RADF feature in Access Care Planning 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 are waiting for guidance from NHS England on when we can enable this capability in Access Care Planning. We will update this article when we have news.
How the RADF feature works in ACP
The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag (RADF) guide explains how to set up, record, review and share reasonable adjustments in ACP. Use it to see how the feature works. It is not yet available in your ACP tenant.
Recording reasonable adjustments in NCRS in the meantime
The RADF feature in ACP 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 ACP will not be available to customers.
Until the RADF feature is available in ACP, staff with the appropriate NHS role-based access can record and view reasonable adjustments directly in NCRS.
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 ACP-NCRS connection is live.
We will update this page and notify customers as soon as the RADF feature is available in ACP.