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Single Assessment Framework version

All services - change

GO Online: Inspection toolkit

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Care provision, integration and continuity

Being responsive means being aware of and effectively connected into the wider health and social care sector, including understanding how this works at a system level.

The following film provides a summary of this area of inspection. It can help you and your teams learn about what will be inspected and what is important to demonstrate to deliver good or outstanding care.

Introducing Care provision, integration and continuity

Duration 01 min 17 sec

Responsive care looks at how your service is joined up with others in the local community, including healthcare to provide effective continuity of care and seamless service.

With health and care provision continuing to evolve, the CQC will want to know how you ensure your service is effectively engaged with others and these relationships support you to better support people’s choices.

Be prepared to explain how you connect with the wider community and manage relationships with changing healthcare systems to best serve the people you support. Share examples about how such connections and effective ways of working enable better continuity of care, support, and treatment.

The CQC inspectors may want to interview people, managers, and staff from across your service, but they also want to speak to external organisations you are connected with. This may include reviewing feedback from community groups, voluntary organisations, local authorities, and Integrated Care Systems.

To learn more about how you can meet this area of CQC inspection, take a look at GO Online.

Watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/788208508

Recommendations

These recommendations act as a checklist to what the CQC will be looking for. Skills for Care has reviewed hundreds of inspection reports and identified these recommendations as recurring good practice in providers that meet CQC expectations.

The CQC is non-prescriptive, which means they don’t tell you what must be done in order to meet their Quality Statement. These recommendations are not intended to be a definitive list and some recommendations might not be relevant to your service. We hope they help you reflect on what evidence you might wish to share with the CQC.

Care provision, integration and continuity

  • We understand the diverse needs of the individuals we support and how to utilise wider local care provision to support them. This includes those with protected characteristics under the Equality Act and those at most risk of a poorer experience of care.
  • Our managers and leaders understand local healthcare systems and how to effectively navigate them.
  • We understand our position within the local health and care system. This includes Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and the part the service plays within them.
  • We can evidence our engagement with other health and social care organisations within our community.
  • We can demonstrate how we work together across health, social care, housing, community services and more to provide coordinated and quality care.
  • Our positive and proactive relationships with across services and the health and social care system enable us to provide joined-up care.
  • Our collaborations with others in the health and care system make a positive difference to people’s lives.
  • We actively help to create support networks around individuals drawing on strengths across the community.
  • We invest in the upskilling of understanding of health and social care systems across our service to enable a better response to people’s needs.
  • We ensure our managers and staff teams are connected to networks and communications channels to keep informed of the evolving health and social care system.
  • We are committed to supporting the wider health and social care system to continually improve and transform.
  • We will support the Care Quality Commission in providing feedback on our experiences of the wider health and social care system.

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Skills for Care Ltd, West Gate, Grace Street, Leeds, LS1 2RP. Registered company no. 3866683. Registered in England charity no. 1079836.
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