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Quality Monitoring and Improvement (Scotland) Policy

Introduction

It has been long recognised as good commercial practice for businesses to check that their goods and services meet customer expectations and comply with industry standards.

Quality assurance is also an industry with organisations set up to assess if a business is meeting the standards expected of them and accrediting them if they do. Being awarded a benchmark or kitemark, the business can then show that it is providing quality, which should help it commercially.

In health and social care, the relevant regulators assure quality by inspecting a registered service against the relevant standards and regulations. Local service commissioners will also check that services under contract to them are achieving their quality standards and are providing value for the public monies that they are investing in them. If services are not meeting the required standards, they will be expected to make the necessary improvements and will be penalised if they fail to do so.

All forms of quality assurance require systems and processes for checking that the organisation is working correctly and effectively to achieve its goals and to take corrective actions if it is not.

Through the information obtained from the various management activities involved in monitoring, reviewing and auditing, the organisation can judge its own performance. The information will also feed into the information base of any outside assessors (inspectors or local authority quality standards sections) and contribute to their respective assessments.

This policy can apply to any adult care service registered with the Care Inspectorate that works to the national standards for health and social care, My Support, My Life.

Aim of Policy

In line with the above, this policy sets out the values, principles and procedures underpinning this care provider’s approach to monitoring the quality of its services, which includes the full involvement of the people who use the services and partner professionals and agencies. It is produced in line with Standard 4: “I have confidence in the organisation providing my care and support” of the national health and social care standards set out in My Support, My Life, particularly:

• 4.8: I am supported to give regular feedback on how I experience my care and support and the organisation uses learning from this to improve, and
• 4.19: I benefit from a culture of continuous improvement, with the organisation having robust and transparent quality assurance processes.

This policy should be read and used in relation to the policies on Responding to the Experiences of People Who Use Services (Scotland) and Complaints.

Policy Statement

The service thinks that having the highest quality care and support is an absolute right of every person who uses services. The continuing aim is to provide a professional and efficient service to meet everyone’s needs and requirements and to achieve satisfactory outcomes for each person. The service’s long-term goal is to obtain the highest possible level of satisfaction from people who use services, their relatives and other stakeholders.

Everyone receiving the services of {{org_field_name}} should:

• expect the highest quality care possible
• be given a say in the running of the service
• be free to complain about any aspect of the running of the service and to have their complaints welcomed and acted upon promptly, with all complaints responded to in line with the service’s established complaints procedure
• be told about the work of the Care Inspectorate and (where applicable) local authority/health service commissioners/quality and compliance section, and know how to make contact with any of these bodies if the need arises.

This care provider puts an emphasis on providing the highest quality service possible for all the people who use its services. However, it also thinks that, no matter how good its present services are, there is always room for improvement.

The organisation will continue to work towards maintaining those high standards that have been achieved. It will continue to work to improve those standards where there is scope for further improvement.

The service expects all care staff and other employees to be committed to delivering a quality service and to improving in every aspect of their work.

[To reflect its commitment to the continuous improvement of its services, the service has been awarded (or is working towards) the (eg Investors in People) quality assurance accreditation. This award gives formal recognition of the quality of care given to the people who use our services]. [Include this point as and where applicable.]

Procedures (adapt as appropriate)

• {{org_field_name}} is responsible for establishing, maintaining and implementing a quality assurance and improvement system for the service. It does this with the help of all members of the management and staff teams, and the full involvement of the people receiving our services.
• {{org_field_name}} will seek the views of the people who use its services, relatives and others involved in a person’s care continuously and through regular meetings to discuss and address any concerns or complaints that they might have about the service.
• It will also carry out regular surveys, at least annually, of the views of the people who use its services. It uses a standard questionnaire and follow-up interviews with a random sample of the people who use its services, representatives and stakeholders. [This last procedure might vary in line with the methods used.]
• The findings are analysed and incorporated into its development plan. The survey is confidential with the overall results published and distributed to all people who use services and others in formats suitable for their communication needs. The provider always positively encourages comment and feedback from people who use services, relatives and other stakeholders.
• The service always encourages comment and feedback from people who use services, relatives and other stakeholders. If a person decides to stop using the service, we will seek their views on the reasons and on their satisfaction with what they have experienced so that we can learn from them and make improvements.
• The service bases its approach on continuous self-assessment and regular monitoring, reviewing and auditing of its practices and procedures. It aims to be responsive to all forms of external feedback from inspectors and (where involved) local quality assurance assessors. In these ways, it measures its achievements against the required standards and make changes where needed to make improvements.
• The service provider always responds promptly and fully to Care Inspectorate requests for information and reports and that its returns reflect the service’s true achievements.
• It seeks to make every employee responsible for the quality of their work and provides all the training they require to perform their duties to the specified quality standards.
• It ensures that any contractors employed for specific functions meet our specified standards.
• Its annual development plan for quality improvement, which is drawn up as part of its business plan, always considers the contributions of the people receiving our services and their views on how the services might be improved.
• Annual development plans are fully costed. They identify specific measurable goals, the actions and resources allocated to achieve them. All plans are rigorously monitored and reviewed.
• There is a named person responsible for assuring and managing quality matters. [Describe as appropriate.] The responsible person has available quality team comprising nominated staff members, people who use services, relatives and other stakeholders who are invited to contribute.

Auditing Procedures

• The service has in place a programme for auditing all the service standards and key procedures, including the seeking and obtaining of people who use services’ views and others involved in their care. An auditing schedule might include any or all of the following if applicable to {{org_field_name}}.
  • Care practices, including nursing and clinical practices.
  • Catering, meals and mealtimes (including nutrition and hydration risk checking).
  • Administration of medicines.
  • Use of equipment and devices, including safety checks.
  • Checking of premises and facilities (care homes)/location premises (domiciliary care).
  • Checking of infection control and hygiene measures.
  • Health and safety and fire safety checks (care homes and domiciliary care premises).
  • Current safeguarding and complaints’ issues, including any alerts to the local safeguarding authority.
  • Staffing, including provision of supervision, support and training.
  • Continuity of care: travel and care time monitoring (domiciliary care).
  • Recording practices and record keeping, including data protection.
  • Checking that quality assurance schedules are being carried out, eg feedback from people who use services is being obtained.
  • Checking that policies and procedures are being reviewed in line with reviewing schedules and are up to date.
  • Other checks needed to achieve compliance with the relevant quality standards, eg notifications to the care regulator.
  • Checking that emergency plans are available and up to date.
• Where applicable, {{org_field_name}} continues to receive regular visits from representatives of {{org_field_name}}, which make an important contribution to the service’s quality information. Reports are sent to the Care Inspectorate in line with the requirements.
• The service will also conduct at least an annual self-evaluation of the service’s performance against the service standards using suitable professional tools, which include obtaining systematised feedback from people who use services and stakeholders.

Training

To provide a quality service, the organisation requires high-quality staff who are suitably trained, supervised and supported as follows.

1. As part of their induction programme, all new staff receive training in the policy on and approach to assuring quality. They receive a copy of the quality policy and procedures and are expected to read, understand and apply them. They can expect to update their training on quality matters as part of their further development and training programme.
2. The organisation is committed to providing its staff with as many opportunities as possible for training to improve the quality of its service.
3. The organisation has strategies to meet all national care standards requirements for staff qualifications and training.

The organisation’s management team provides instruction, practical example supervision and training to show that quality is the aim of all members of staff and that each employee has a proper understanding of the importance of the quality system and its direct relevance to the success of the business.

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Responsible Person: {{org_field_registered_manager_first_name}} {{org_field_registered_manager_last_name}}

Reviewed on: {{last_update_date}}

Next Review Date: {{next_review_date}}

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