What are quality concerns?

This is when there are concerns regarding the quality of care that an individual is receiving from service providers, whether this is an external or internal provider.

Any quality concerns in relation to service providers should be passed on to the commissioning teams. The commissioning teams covering adults, mental health and learning disability services evaluate and monitor all our providers’ performance on a regular basis and at monitoring meetings all the data relating to commissioned activity, safeguarding and quality concerns are discussed in detail. Commissioned services include residential and nursing homes, supported living providers, home care providers as well as some voluntary sector providers.

All the information you send builds a picture of how a provider is operating and helps us to understand patterns and common issues. When we bring all the information together from different sources we are in a better position to challenge poor practice, support an organisation to improve or congratulate a provider on delivering a good service.

What to do if you have a quality concern

In the first instance, as the allocated or assigned social care officer, you should follow up with the provider in question. In the event that it is a serious concern, a repeated quality issue, or the provider is not responding, then you will need to report this to the Commissioning team.

Please complete the Quality Assurance Reporting Form which once completed will be sent directly to the quality assurance inbox and to the provider. The inbox is actively managed by a commissioning manager and is checked every working day. 

The safeguarding process should still be followed for any safeguarding concerns, however please copy in Quality Assurance if it is in relation to a commissioned provider.  Further guidance has been developed regarding quality assurance and Commissioned Services Quality Alerts and the Safeguarding Process.