QCS have released the Mock Inspection Toolkits and the corresponding policy for care homes for older people in Scotland. I hope you have had a chance to review the policy and Toolkits.
We have developed these to follow the draft inspection framework released by the Care Inspectorate and we are awaiting the final frameworks’ announcement any day now. If there are changes to be made, we at QCS, will adapt the toolkits immediately.
The new methodology from the regulator, asks all services to answer three questions;
- How are we doing?
- How do we know?
- What are we going to do now?
We believe these toolkits will help you monitor and measure the service you are delivering and guide you to make improvements by involving all stakeholders.
There are Five Toolkits available, one for each of the five key questions and within each one is relevant Quality Indicators.
Five Toolkits are;
- How good is the care and support and what difference is it making?
- How good is the leadership?
- How good is the staff team?
- How good is the setting?
- How good are the key processes?
There is guidance within the toolkits on how to prepare for an inspection, our advice is to conduct the mock inspection twice a year using the five toolkits to measure performance and generate improvement, involving residents, relatives, staff and visiting professionals.
Within each toolkit,there are checklists to help the auditor collate relevant information to validate the specific grade the auditor awards the service. There are examples of the illustrations required to attain each of the six grades however this information will be invaluable when the Self-Assessment is reactivated by the regulator.
The tool helps the user develop an action plan, and after completion of the specific actions the grades should rise with consistent monitoring and improvement being at the centre of the management of the service, improving the outcomes for all users of the service.
As soon as the framework is released for Care at Home, we will develop Mock Inspection Toolkits for those services too!
Happy Auditing!
