Quality

PCAS have an internal quality management system which incorporates the 5 key questions that the Care Quality Commission frame their inspections around. This gives us a set of internal audit tools which we link to Key Performance Indicators for our management team and expands on the reporting tools that we have in place. We can monitor support planning and delivery against set outcomes for the individual, which are then personalised according to the needs of each person. 

We have a developed communication strategy which holds information and reports on service specific detail including company level and personal level information, we monitor all reports into and out of the company by management reporting and strict process. We collate and investigate all reports we receive including service user complaints, safeguarding, accidents and incidents, staff supervision and all training courses. We actively seek service user input into all of these processes including training where people can benefit from the courses we offer or support us in the training of our staff we actively encourage this to ensure everyone can be a part of our quality assurance process. All staff receive a high level and variation of training which includes induction courses, care certificate, mandatory and statutory courses. We offer professional development for staff by NVQ or progressive systems and levelling of course as well as regular updates on standard courses. All our statutory courses are monitored for updates by an external course provider, but content is controlled internally for delivery so that we can tailor the courses for our own service users. Our staff team are trained with regard to service user involvement and safety, we include safeguarding and whistleblowing so that staff are confident that they can raise concerns and have clear channels internally and externally where they need to highlight any issues.

Safeguarding is a responsibility that PCAS take very seriously and have a comprehensive policy that all staff are made to read and understand as an addition to the training provided. The culture of the organisation is one of candour with a view to making it safe and comfortable for staff and service users to report or raise any concerns about any issues that may be affecting them. KCC’s Making Safeguarding Personal has provided us with the tools to involve service users in decision making about safeguarding issues that have affected them. Our policy is to ‘report everything’. 

We are confident that we operate a totally open and transparent service with a culture of honesty and integrity at its heart. The management of PCAS have an open door policy and actively encourage service users, staff and families to drop in for a chat any time they wish to discuss something and also to engage with us in alternative methods of their choosing. Any actions needed as a result of these chats are taken without delay. We will be implementing our first stakeholder and staff surveys within the next 6 months, to get a view of the service from all angles. We will feed back the results of this survey to include actions taken and improvements made, in an annual report to stakeholders. Stakeholder feedback will also be an agenda item on all team meetings as determined by the communication policy of the organisation. Complaints and compliments are reviewed at senior management meetings along with the follow up actions as appropriate.

We have employed a group of volunteers led by a highly qualified and experienced operational manager and advocate to promote the views and opinions of the people we support, they have a brief to report directly to company directors and give honest feedback to the support they receive, they will represent the views and wishes of the service users to inform company policy and direction as we develop in time the idea and hope is that we will form a shadow board made up entirely of service users and a speak up group who will feed into this to help monitor the quality of what we do and give us a great understanding of how to improve it.