The quality of care you provide should continue to evolve to reflect learning, new and more effective ways of working … and where possible, the latest innovations.
To achieve this area of Well-led inspection focus, you will need to have an effective approach when it comes to quality assurance and quality improvement informed by the latest evidence and best practice.
This requires investment, so owners of care services need to be prepared to fund the systems and processes needed. The use of technology to achieve this is increasingly encouraged and celebrated in CQC inspection reports.
Quality assurance processes should be effectively embedded in the service. From spot-checks to internal audits or mock inspections, there are multiple ways to check quality and identify areas for improvement.
Regardless of whether your service has previously met inspection requirements or not, the CQC will be looking for every service to be committed to continual improvement. This might mean implementing minor improvements for some services or major changes for others.
Always be prepared to be able to evidence to the CQC what areas for improvement you identified, how you implemented the improvement and what difference has this made to the care that is provided?
Learning from accidents, incidents and events is looked at in the Safe area of inspection … but the CQC may choose to revisit it here to.
CQC inspection interviews may involve managers, staff, the people you support … as well as external contacts such as commissioners, the local Healthwatch, and others.
Documented evidence the CQC may be interested in seeing includes:
- quality assurance systems and audits and any associated action plans
- quality based accreditation schemes
- and any national or other awards gained.
GO Online combines advice, examples and resources to help you.
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