What are the IBD standards and how are they used?
The IBD Standards say what high-quality care should look like at every point of a patient’s journey – from first symptoms, to diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing care.
The aim of the IBD Standards is to remove variation in care. They’re designed to ensure that people with IBD receive safe, consistent, high-quality, personalised care, whatever their age and wherever they live in the UK. We want to encourage healthcare services to recognise what they are doing well and identify where they need to improve.
IBD UK published the first IBD Standards in 2019. Since then, the Standards have been used to benchmark IBD services around the UK both through a Service Survey completed by IBD services and a separate Patient Survey. The first round of benchmarking was 2019/20 (2021 IBD UK Report: The Hidden Cost and a Vision for Change | IBD UK). This was then repeated in 2023 (2024 IBD UK Report: The State of IBD Care in the UK | IBD UK). Having consistent standards in place supports services with quality improvement initiatives and allows them to see over time how they are improving.
Why update the IBD standards?
The IBD Standards were first published in 2019. They are being updated in 2025 to reflect developments in service provision and to future proof the Standards for the coming years. The update also offers the opportunity to refresh and clarify the wording of the standards where necessary.
What is the scope of the update?
The Standards will continue to be used for the IBD UK benchmarking, so the update will, where possible, maintain the integrity of the Standards for this purpose. This means that Standards will be modified only where necessary. New Standards that reflect service developments will also be included where necessary.
The IBD Standards remain aspirational and as such will represent the standard of care that IBD Services aim to offer patients. That said, any targets within the Standards will reflect other national guidance where available.
The IBD Standards are concerned with service delivery rather than treatment and as such are different to clinical guidelines. Any Standards more akin to clinical guidelines will be deleted during this update.
The IBD UK website contains supporting guidance for each of the Standards; this guidance will be reviewed and updated alongside the Standards.
How are we working and who have we involved?
IBD UK is a partnership of 16 professional bodies, royal colleges and patient organisations working together to improve care and treatment for everyone affected by Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Their main aim is to ensure that everyone with IBD has consistent, safe, high-quality personalised care, whatever their age and wherever they live in the UK.
A working group taken from IBD UK Board members and including the full range of healthcare professionals who care for people with IBD has taken the lead in updating the IBD Standards alongside people with lived experience of IBD.
All the existing Standards have been reviewed by all members of the working group and, following discussion, the Standards have been edited for clarity, modified, deleted or new Standards added. These Standards are now being widely circulated to IBD teams and people with lived experience to allow for further review of the Standards before they are finalised.
How should you complete the consultation?
The consultation should be completed by 6th July 2025 using this form: IBD Standards Update Consultation Form.
You can view the updated standards alongside the existing standards here: Updated IBD standards for consultation
There are 65 standards in seven separate sections. Please review all sections of the Standards before completing the consultation. This will ensure you have a full view of all proposed updates.
Each Standard will be supported by additional guidance on the IBD UK website, which will be updated after the consultation. If you feel that additional guidance is needed rather than the Standard needing modification this can be included in your response.
If there are any queries, please contact Jess Turner, Head of Health Services at Crohn’s & Colitis UK, via the IBD UK inbox info@IBDUK.org.
Updated IBD Standards: Updated IBD standards for consultation
Consultation Form: IBD Standards Update Consultation Form