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1.1.4 Quality Assurance Framework

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Southwark Quality Practice Standards
  3. Converting Standards into Practice
  4. Monitoring Standards
  5. Youth Offending Service


1. Introduction

We have a duty to ensure that everyone working in our service is providing a high quality service to children and families.

Our service to children is provided in the context of the Southwark Children and Young Person's Plan 2010 to 2013. The council's vision is summarised as follows:

"Every child, young person and family in Southwark leading independent, healthy lives, feeling safe and secure and achieving their full potential. We have high expectations for our communities and will work together to make a measurable difference in a way that helps overcome inequality and disadvantage, and strengthens families' abilities to raise their children successfully."

In order to achieve this vision, we will work in partnership across five priorities:  

  • Thinking family - families at the centre of all we do
  • Narrowing the gap - better and more equal life chances for all
  • Raising the bar - high-quality provision that meets local needs
  • Succeeding into adulthood - at-risk young people achieve wellbeing
  • Working together - children are safeguarded from harm and neglect

Full details of the plan are on Southwark website

Quality Assurance (QA) measures are put in place in Children's Social Care to ensure that work carried out is of high quality, complies with statutory and local standards and procedures and contributes to achieving the best outcomes for children and families.

The QA process involves the following steps:

  • Ensuring that all staff are aware of the standards required in carrying out their duties.
  • Monitoring performance in order to make sure that these standards are being met
  • Feeding back to staff via supervision, team days, training and development about the areas where improvements are required
  • Ensuring that action is taken to improve practice in those areas

This is known as the cycle of improvement:

cycle of improvement


2. Southwark Quality Practice Standards

The following professional standards are based on legislation, good practice guidance and Southwark's procedural handbook. They are a clear statement of what is expected when staff are providing a service to children, young people and families. They form the basis of all work with children and families in Southwark:

  1. The safety and welfare of children is the most important consideration
    • Children should be safeguarded from harm
    • Children's needs should be identified in a timely way
    • Children should be supported to achieve their full potential
    • Children's views, wishes and feelings should always be ascertained. These views should be respected and taken into account where decisions are being made
    • Children have rights and these should be promoted
  2. All work carried out must keep the child as the main focus
    • Children must be seen, spoken to or communicated with as part of all assessments.
    • Children should be enabled to participate in the planning and delivery of services to them
    • Communication with children should reflect their age, culture, language and level of functioning.
    • Children with disabilities may need support and help with communication
  3. Work should be carried out in partnership with parents and carers wherever possible
    • Children are usually better off living with their parents and/or family. Unless  there are clear indicators that a child will suffer harm, workers should aim to keep  children living with their family
    • Parents and carers should be actively and appropriately involved in assessment, planning and  implementation of service delivery
    • Parents and carers have rights and should be treated with respect
    • Parents and carers should be listened to and their views taken into account in all matters concerning their children
    • All service users should be routinely engaged in evaluating and shaping services
  4. All agencies within Southwark have duties and responsibilities to work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
    • Assessments and plans made for children must include the information and views of all relevant agencies
    • Services planned for children are holistic and use resources of all agencies and the wider community network
    • Working relationships with partner agencies are professional and responsive.
    • Communication with partner agencies is clear and timely and proportionate. Information should be shared where it is necessary.
  5. Work with children is undertaken within the legislative framework and uses best practice guidance
    • Local procedures should be up to date and reflect legislation and guidance. Workers to be aware of procedures and be compliant with them
    • All practice should be in accordance with legislation and should make use of legislative powers to ensure good outcomes for children
    • Work should be informed by research and case review evidence
  6. Work with children and their families should be fair and inclusive
    • Organisational culture and practices should not be discriminatory. Workers should feel able to challenge discriminatory views or practice where necessary
    • Workers should be aware of the impact of social disadvantage in neighbourhoods, networks and communities
    • Services and plans should actively empower children and their families to  address and overcome social exclusion
  7. Children's records and reports are accurate, complete, accessible and up to date and demonstrate the decision making process
    • Case recording to be concise and analytical. It should distinguish between fact and opinion and be appropriate for service user access.
    • Assessments to be completed, signed off by managers and distributed within statutory time-scales.
    • Decisions and plans from strategy discussions to be clearly recorded on file and distributed to attendees as appropriate
    • Child Protection conferences and Looked After Reviews to be held within statutory time-scales and completed records to be distributed to all agency attendees within statutory time-scales
    • Information about children to be recorded and stored electronically in accordance with data protection and information sharing guidelines and meets the requirements of performance measurement and data monitoring
  8. Workers are supervised and managed to achieve the best possible outcomes
    • All new workers take part in an induction process that outlines the service's expectations of them and what support and supervision they should expect from their managers
    • All workers to have training in safeguarding and be able to respond appropriately to children at risk of harm
    • Work is allocated to suitably qualified staff, who fully understand their role and have the capacity to complete tasks
    • All workers to have regular supervision where discussion and decisions are recorded
    • Workers to have individual training plans drawn up with their managers which include plans for their personal and professional development.
    • Managers to oversee the work of their workers regularly by supervision, audit and overview of electronic files. This to ensure that children are receiving a high quality service


3. Converting Standards into Practice

Using the standards outlined above, more specific performance standards have been developed.

These standards have been developed with the management groups of the three services.

The performance standards outline:
  • The standards required
  • How this standard is monitored
  • What to do if the standard is not met

Click here to view the Practice Standards - Children in need/in need of protection table

Click here to view the Practice Standard - Looked After Children table

Click here to view the Practice Standard - Assessments and Recording table

Click here to view the Practice Standard - Staff and Supervision table


4. Monitoring Standards

Performance in Children's Services is measured in a number of ways:

  1. National performance indicators

    Reports on these are produced in a monthly cycle and circulated to all managers for review.
  2. Local indicators

    These are produced by means of business objects (BOXI) reports direct from CareFirst available to team managers and practice managers.

    Business Unit managers will review their performance with regard to 1 and 2 within monthly management meetings.
  3. Quality Assurance review

    Child Protection Reviews or Looked After Reviews are held according to statutory guidelines. These reviews are minuted and recorded on case files. The chairs will escalate concerns about safeguarding or care planning to the appropriate managers. Escalations are recorded and tracked by QA service managers
  4. Supervision

    All social workers and managers receive regular supervision. This process will ensure that work is being progressed appropriately and safely and that workers receive good support, training and development.
  5. Complaints/feedback from service users and other professionals
    • Customer services report
    • Children's rights service/VOICE advocates
    • SSCB agency feedback

      Reports from any of the above may trigger a management review of a current case or practice.
  6. Audits

    These are carried out at a number of levels in Southwark:
    • Individual case audits carried out by line managers to monitor practice
    • Themed audits carried out by individual business units
    • Themed audits carried out by the Quality Assurance Unit and Professional Standards Coordinator in response to identified concerns raised e.g. in Serious case Reviews or complaints

      Themed audits are signed off, monitored and followed up on a regular basis by the professional standards group. Audit reports will be presented to Business unit managers groups on a regular basis for discussion about standards and practice.


5. Youth Offending Service

Southwark's Youth Offending Service follows guidance set by the Youth Justice Board in its 'Key Elements of Effective Practice' and self-assessment toolkits (July 2008) to develop its own quality assurance framework.

Practice is quality assured through monitoring against Revised National Standards (YJB 2009) and Case Management Guidance (2010) published to coincide with the introduction of the Youth Rehabilitation Order and Scaled Approach.

For that reason the YOS is not included in this framework, but has a separate QA framework.

End