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GO Online: Inspection toolkit

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Listening to and involving people

All adult social care services should expect to receive regular feedback, including concerns and complaints raised by the people you support. You should actively seek feedback – whether good or bad – to help confirm what is going well and potential areas for improvement.

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 Listening to and involving people

Duration 02 min 00 sec

People need to be actively involved in their day-to-day care. Involving people and listening to their needs is an essential part of delivering Responsive care.

Feedback can help regulated services to know what is going well and respond to areas of concern. As part of the inspection process, the CQC will want to be assured that you are an organisation that listens and acts upon any concerns and complaints to help improve the quality of care.

The CQC inspection focus will look at how you involve people in discussing their care, treatment, and support needs. Inspectors will look at how you support people to raise concerns and complaints … and this may on occasion involve the support of external advocates and those acting on behalf of the individual.

Openness and transparency will be key to encouraging feedback but there is a balance here with the confidentiality of some of the issues that are raised. Your service will need to have systems in place to ensure anybody raising a concern or complaint is protected from discrimination, harassment, or other disadvantages.

In addition to acknowledging the feedback, it will also be important to keep people informed of what you are doing with it and how the care might be changing as a result.

In addition to interviewing managers, your staff team, and the people you support, the CQC inspectors may ask to review various documents when assessing this area including Care plans, Complaints and compliments, Staff training and induction.

GO Online brings together recommendations, examples, and resources to help this area of CQC inspection focus.

Watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/788208768

Resources

The practical resources below can help you to strengthen this area of CQC inspection. Use the filter to choose different types of resources or select based on related prompt.

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6 resource(s) found

Healthwatch

Resource creator: Healthwatch England

Healthwatch is the independent national champion for people who use health and social care services. They focus on what matters to people and help make sure their views shape the support they need.

Healthwatch provides guidance and advice on how people can make complaints about adult social care and whistleblowing advice for staff. Understanding their advice and processes can be useful to help providers follow good and best practice when supporting people around concerns and complaints.

  • Guide

Date published: July 2021


Complaints audit guidance

Resource creator: Quality Compliance Systems (QCS)

The QCS complaints audit focuses on five key areas and should be completed in-line with the current audit schedule of the service, as well as local risks in the complaints theme area. This guidance should be reviewed alongside key policies and procedures, including the Quality and Quality Assurance Policy and Procedure, and Auditing Policy and Procedure at the service.

  • Guide

Date published: June 2021


Managing complaints – practical tips in effectively responding to feedback

Resource creator: Skills for Care and The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman

This 30-minute webinar introduces the relationship between the CQC and the Ombudsman. It focuses on the importance of effective complaints handling and how learning from complaints can be used to drive service improvements.

The webinar provides an overview of some best practice guidance.

  • Film

Date published: June 2021


The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman

Resource creator: The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman

The ombudsman looks into individual complaints about councils, all adult social care providers (including care homes and home care agencies) and some other organisations providing local public services.

The ombudsman is a free service that investigate complaints in a fair and independent way - they don’t take sides. The ombudsman provides a range of resources to support you, including:

  • templates for care providers, including model responses
  • training in effective complaints handling
  • expectations for raising complaints and concerns – eLearning module
  • a review of previous complaints to inform learning
  • regular bulletin updates.
  • Guide
  • Template

Date published: June 2021


How can you use people's views to improve your service?

Resource creator: Skills for Care

A short blog with suggestions on how to involve your staff and people receiving care and support in improving your service.

  • Guide

Date published: April 2019


People's experience using adult social care (QS182)

Resource creator: National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE)

This quality standard covers the experience of adults using social care services. It applies to all settings where people use social care services, including people's own homes, residential care and community settings. It aims to help people understand what care they can expect and to improve their experience by supporting them to make decisions about their care. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement, including statements and measures on:

  • care and support needs assessments
  • personal budgets
  • continuity of care and support
  • people’s views informing service improvement.

The statements are specific and concise, and focus on priorities for quality improvement. In particular, please see statement 4.

  • Guide

Date published: February 2018



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