KISS, meaning Keep It Short and Simple, is a about customer and clients helping us check our documents to make sure they are short and simple to understand.

How does it work?

Documents are sent to the group or presented by the people who created them. Customers and clients assess these documents using the standards and give ideas and feedback on how they can be improved.

What are the standards?

Each standard is represented as a question, which should be asked when reading the document. The KISS standards can be found here.

How were KISS groups started?

Darren Jones – a client from the north – realised that the documents being used for clients were not always easy to understand. Darren and Kate O’Donnell, Client Involvement Advisor, attended a course in reading panels and set up the first KISS group.

Now KISS groups are based in different regions and use the KISS standards to make documents client friendly. These standards encourage us to use common sense and challenge people to create documents that are written in plain English, are free of jargon, colourful and easy to read.

This is what our KISS members have said...

”From the last meeting to this meeting there has been a big improvement in documents - they are getting better”

“Our input will make documents easier to read for other clients and customers”

“It's nice to come here, give our point of view and see that we're actually changing documents - it's brilliant!”