External Quality & Consistency Forum (Adults) Date: 18 January 2007 Time: Venue: 10.30 am Compass House, Dundee Present Liz Norton, Care Commission (Chair) Susan Brimelow, Care Commission Marcia Ramsay, Care Commission Pam Courcha, Care Commission John Ledger, Aberdeenshire Council Jane Davidson, NHS Tayside Ranald Mair, Scottish Care Kenneth Hay, Scottish Independent Hospitals Annie Gunner, Community Care Providers Scotland Kenny Valentine, BUPA Clare Murphy, SMH Chris Bruce, NHS Lothian Heather Hardisty, NHS Grampian David Bookbinder, Scottish Federation of Housing In Attendance David Wiseman, Care Commission for Items 12 & 14.1 only Alison Ryan, Care Commission for Item 13 only Page 1 of 7
Item 1.0 APOLOGIES Action Bill Duncan/ Kuldip Dhesi and Sue Neilson, Care Commission Deanna Cruickshank, Aberdeenshire Council Edwin Wilkinson, Crossroads Scotland Stephen McCullough, Community Care Providers Joe Walker, BUPA Anne Hanley, NHS Quality Improvement Elizabeth Thomas, SMH Geri McCormick, North Lanarkshire Council/ ADSW Derek Phaup, National Homecare Council Andrew Wemyss, Scottish Ambulance Service Rosalind Carr, Constance Care Jean Mitchell, NHS Borders Gloria McLoughlin, Scottish Care at Home Karen Darling, NHS Ayrshire & Arran 2.0 NOTE OF PREVIOUS MEETING 5 October 2006 This was accepted subject to the following amendment: David Wiseman should be noted as being in attendance for Item 6 only. 3.0 MATTERS ARISING The remit circulated was agreed as the final remit of the group. 4.0 CONSISTENCY MAIL BOX The mail box is not being used regularly. It was noted that some service providers were uncomfortable with not being able to anonymise their comments. will liaise with the Communications Manager about raising the profile and making the mailbox more user friendly. Scottish Care will highlight the mailbox in the next issue of their newsletter. A diagram was issued at the July 2006 meeting noting the range of ways in which the Care Commission is trying to ensure consistency and quality. This will be re circulated with the minutes. RM PH 5.0 REGULATION FOR IMPROVEMENT PROJECT The pilot inspections in care homes for older people and childminder services that volunteered to take part have started. Page 2 of 7
6 ENHANCED CARE SERVICES LIST The care services list on the Care Commission website now contains additional information that we are required by law to publish, ie. Summary of complaints and enforcements. There has been no publicity to the public as it is being tested until end March. We are looking for providers to feedback to us on the way in which we are trying to do this and the content of the website. We have already been providing this information under the Freedom of Information Act. It will be advertised from April to the public when expanded information on complaints will also be published. Only complaints that are upheld or partially upheld are detailed. An example of an anonymised complaint was tabled in order to demonstrate the type of information released under FOI. It was asked that the facility for searching by service provider should be available as well as search by service name. 7.0 CARE COMMISSION FORUM For information the next Care Commission Forum will be held on 27 February in Dundee. It will focus on what we have learned about the quality of care services throughout Scotland. It is also hoped that by this time the Annual Quality Overview will be published and able to be discussed at the forum. 8.0 INSPECTION FOCUS AREAS 2007/ 08 Inspection Focus Areas (IFAs) were previously annual Themes but the name has been changed to avoid confusion with the Quality Themes being inspected within the Quality Assessment Framework (QAF) pilot. A summary of IFAs for 2007/8 was tabled. The IFAs allow us to report nationally on care service quality areas until the QAF is rolled out across all services. Once the evaluation of the QAF is complete it is hoped that the IFAs and Quality Themes will be combined. Appendix A is in relation to the Protecting People IFA which will cover all care service types. Key questions for adult services IFAs will be up to six questions per IFA with the exception of Offender Services which will have seven. There are significantly less IFAs than there were Themes in previous years. The key questions will be published on the Care Commission s website by April 2007. The IFAs have been compiled following consultation with our staff, external agencies during other discussions, and taking into account Page 3 of 7
policy drivers such as the Protecting Vulnerable Groups Bill and the Adult Support and Protection Bill. The findings of inspections have also informed the IFAs. Next year we will consult more widely with service providers about which IFAs we should consider. The Regulation Support Assessment will also influence which other areas will be looked at by CCOs during inspections. 9.0 CORE DATA SET This was deferred to the next meeting. 10 MOU WITH HEALTH BOARDS A decision has been taken not revise the MOU with Health Boards as they are almost at the stage of all being signed, however, they will be reviewed in the future. An invitation has been sent to the Health Board Chief Executives and other interested parties to discuss linking the role of the Care Commission in regulating care services with the commissioning and contracting functions of NHS Boards. This is taking place 6 February. 10.1 We hope to have the MOU with the charities regulator OSCR by the end of January. 11 FREQUENCY OF INSPECTION There has been consultation with the Scottish Executive about the frequency of inspection. The Care Commission s recommendations are: Care Homes for Adults should not be reduced. Housing Support Services should be reduced to once in three years only for those services provided by registered social landlords but this reduction will not apply to care at home services. Therefore those who run a combined service can expect annual inspections. There are no recommendations for reductions in frequency for other services for Adults. Nurse Agencies should be reduced to once every two years. This has not yet been decided by Parliament. Until the SSI is passed it is safest to assume that there will be an inspection in all services in 2007/ 08. However, even in those services types where Parliament may change the frequency we may still inspect as we would also conduct random inspections. All services must still submit their Annual Returns, Self Evaluation forms, etc annually. Page 4 of 7
12 COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE A paper was tabled outlining the proposed project between the Care Commission and the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman on complaints. We have informed our Sponsor branch of this proposal and have asked for them to point out key people to be involved. It was noted that advocacy organisations should be considered to be involved with this piece of work 13 QUALITY ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK The first phase of pilots is currently taking place. The next pilot phase starts from May until August across a range of service types including: Housing Support, Care at Home, and Care Homes for People with Learning Disabilities, Mental Health, Physical Disabilities and Substance Misuse. There will be two sub-groups to carry out the function of consulting on quality statements, sources of evidence and the grading structure. Volunteers are being sought from service providers to contribute. The Care Homes for People with Learning Disabilities, Mental Health, Physical Disabilities and Substance Misuse sub-group meeting will be held 20 February (am). The Housing Support Services and Care at Home sub-group meeting will be held 21 February (pm). The locations will be decided once representation is received. A briefing of the sub-groups should be circulated with the minute. Any volunteers from this group or constituents of the group should be submitted to Liz Norton as soon as possible. CCOs are already being trained to commence the QAF framework and revised inspection methodology within the normal inspection process. PH ALL An evaluation of the first pilot will be done in March. Rather than one overall grade, each of the Quality Themes will be graded individually: Quality of Life, Environment, Staffing and Management and Leadership. Grades will not be published for pilot inspections. All National Care Standards should be included under the Quality Themes. The names of the themes may change and the views of the group regarding quality of care and support as an alternative to quality of life are noted. In 2005 we received 3000 responses to our consultation about the Quality Themes and statements including titles of these.. A diagram of the Quality Assessment Framework was tabled and should be distributed within the minute. It was noted that the diagram does not take into account any quality assurance system that service providers may have themselves. will consider this for inclusion. PH Page 5 of 7
13.1 The COSLA advisory group have provided CoSLA s consultants with their comments re questionnaires. CoSLA s approach is to have a questionnaire for service users to complete, or for those service users who can t complete it for themselves a member of the care staff to complete. It is the Care Commission s view that it doesn t make sense to have different grading schemes and so we will be working with CoSLA to this end in order to reduce duplication. 14 AOCB The Scottish Executive & COSLA are discussing an agreement about enhanced payments for easily measured aspects of the care provision, for example single rooms. 14.1 Corporate Plan A paper was tabled outlining the Care Commission s Strategic Priorities in the draft Corporate Plan for 2007/ 10. The forum was asked to contribute to informing the final content of the 2007/10 Corporate Plan with the following questions: Do you agree with the draft strategic priorities for 2007-10? What are the main areas of activity you would want the Care Commission to focus on during the period 2007/ 10? o What should we do more of and what should we do less of? How can we better enable you to inform and influence what we are going to do during 2007/ 10? Comments should be sent to david.wiseman@carecommission.com by 31 January 2007. ALL The final draft of the Corporate Plan 2007-10 will then be submitted to a meeting of the Care Commission s Board on 27 February 2007. Following the Board s approval it has to be submitted to our Sponsorship Branch in order that it can be considered by the Depute Minister for Health and Community Care, and hopefully approved. 14.2 Format of Meetings The format of having speakers to agenda items was welcome. All papers are free to be circulated to all constituents. Wherever possible, papers should be circulated before meetings to allow for discussion at meetings rather than comments being sent afterwards. Meeting invitations should note that the meeting is a 10.15am arrival for 10.30am start. Future meeting dates should be noted on the minutes. These are: 19 April 19 July Page 6 of 7
18 October 14.3 SSSC Registration The SSSC does not have a date for closing the register and there is information on their website about the process and the timetable for registration as people become eligible for registration. This will also feature in the next Care News. 14.4 Care Commission s Annual Report The Annual Report was published this week and will be available on the website shortly. The report also includes analysis of the satisfaction questionnaire issued to service providers about the Care Commission. A summary of the report will be distributed to the next meeting. 14.5 Agenda Item Suggestions Implications of individualised budgets. Chris Bruce. The draft policy and guidance paper on Direct Payments Scotland to be circulated. Joint education for health and social care staff - Heather Hardisty Page 7 of 7