QUALITY ASSURANCE POLICY

OPS is committed to providing the highest possible quality of service to the people who use our services, the organisations who purchase services on their behalf and all other customers and stakeholders and we believe that, no matter how good our present service, there is always room for improvement.

All of our services are registered under the CQC (Care Quality Commission).  

 

The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of all health and adult social care in England.

CQC regulates care provided by the NHS, local authorities, private companies and voluntary organisations.  Its aim is to make sure better care is provided for everyone – in hospitals, care homes and people’s own homes. CQC publish its inspection reports on their website www.cqc.org.uk, which also provides details of all social care services available throughout the UK.

Our quality assurance framework incorporates the Continuous Professional Development (CPD),the essentials of Investors In People.

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The high standard of service we aim for is achieved through the implementation of CPD, which covers all of our operational functions from delivery of care and support through to our internal management systems. Staff at all levels of the organisation are involved in CPD and this commitment to staff involvement is reflected in our Investors in People award.

We provide evidence-based and continually improving services, which promote both good outcomes and best value, which includes:

• Ensuring a person centred approach to the care and support for each individual.

• Enabling the people we support to set Customer Standards and involving them in the auditing process.

• Internal Quality Monitoring Visits identifying recommendations and requirements to ensure the improvement and development of the service, as well as identifying commendations for good practice and achievements.

• Obtaining feedback from others who are involved with our services, such as healthcare professionals and relatives.

• Policies, procedures and guidelines, which detail how these agreed levels of service are to be achieved.

• Auditing of our systems to ensure that our high quality standards are maintained and to highlight areas for improvement.

 

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EXTERNAL

 

OPS works within a number of externally imposed quality frameworks that define standards. The most important of these include:

• National Minimum Standards (Care standards Act 2000)

• Essential Standards of Quality & Safety set by the Care Quality Commission (CQC)

• Other regulatory standards, e.g. Health & Safety Executive, Fire Authority, Environmental Department

• Contracts compliance as set by the placing authority

In general these external quality frameworks all aim to ensure that quality is built into services through setting and implementation of standards, through processes for review, and through monitoring to ensure that services meet the needs of service users and other stakeholders.

 

 

INTERNAL

 

We are aware that other key aspects of quality assurance include mechanisms for the monitoring or auditing of services to ensure they are being delivered as originally intended.

 

These include:

•  Monitoring Visits

(Unannounced visit by someone not in charge of the day-to-day running, in the case of a care home. The visit provides an opportunity for the registered provider to monitor the quality of the service being provided in the care home. They may wish to concentrate on aspects of the service that people using it have told them they need to improve)

•  Monthly Managers check

(Monthly audit of Essential Standards of Quality & Safety, examination of buildings, fixtures, fittings, risk assessments, equipment, policies, procedures, records, reports)

• Complaints monitoring and effective “open door” policy

•  Policies, Procedures & Practices

(Review of policies, procedures and practices in light of changing legislation and reflection of good practice as advised by appropriate authorities or multidisciplinary body)

• Satisfaction surveys – service users’ questionnaires,