National Market Development Forum publishes Driving up Quality in Adult Social Care: Statement of Quality Assurance Principles

TLAP's National Market Development Forum (NMDF) is pleased to introduce, "Driving up Quality in Adult Social Care: Statement of Quality Assurance Principles", one in a series of three papers on quality assurance (QA) in adult social care.

The principles were developed by the National Market Development Forum's quality assurance task and finish group, which includes people with care and support needs, service providers and commissioners, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and other key players in the social care field. The principles were also shared and tested with a wider group of key stakeholders. The principles provide a framework to help assess and understand the various QA and improvement initiatives that currently exist within the social care sector.

Bill Mumford, Chair, Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG), said:
"In developing Driving up Quality in Adult Social Care: Statement of Quality Assurance Principles, Think Local Act Personal has brought together a wealth of experience from right across the social care sector, and most importantly, from people who use care services.

This framework does not attempt to rate the many tools and approaches that organisations and individuals can use to judge and improve quality of social care services, but describes the overarching elements that should be included in any effective QA system.

The NMDF hopes the framework's principles will be useful to those developing and using QA systems, and that they will assist those commissioning and purchasing their own services to have a better understanding of the characteristics they should be seeking in a quality service.

Des Kelly, Chair of the quality assurance and improvement task and finish group, NMDF, said:

"I am delighted to report that we had excellent support for this work. Everyone involved was very engaged with debating the issues of quality assurance and improvement and we hope the end result is a helpful contribution to the care and support sector. Work on the quality agenda continues through the National Market Development Forum and we are committed to sharing the outcomes of this with colleagues via Think Local Act Personal in 2013.

I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in this work. The framework puts people who use care and support services at the centre of any definition or quality or assessment of services and, as such, provide a point of reference for comparing or developing quality assurance schemes."

TLAP has also published the results of the "Quality assurance survey of Local Authorities", which informed this work.