Welcome to the Quality Checkers Report Presentation. Northamptonshire Quality Checkers

Why are we here today? We came to the meeting today to update the CCG on the last years quality checking activity and other news. For our third year we no longer have funding from the Learning Disability Partnership Board but the Council may fund us instead. But we have been very lucky to have been given funding by the C.C.G for our third year.

The money has helped us to carry on employing people with learning difficulties to carry out quality checks. Paul is our permanent quality checker and he works 1 full day a week and sometimes more. Mike, Alex, Dawn & Debbie are the casual quality checkers.

What have we quality checked for the CCGs? We checked residential homes. Many of the people we have visited have complex health needs. We checked some residential homes that are out of the county. We checked supported living services We checked day services We have also carried out quality checks in a secure hospital where people funded by health are being treated.

How many checks have we done in the last year ? We have carried out 83 checks in total 32 visits have been to CCG funded homes or services. 19 visits have been to NCC funded homes or services. 4 visits have been to homes joint funded by NCCG & NCC,1 of these was funded with another county.

17 visits have been to supported living homes. 5 Visits have been to day services. We also carried out 6 supported living checks that a service paid for privately.

We have spoken with lots and lots of people who have learning difficulties and complex health needs

What are some of the important things have we found out during our checks? Many of the people we have spoken to are happy with their home or service. Many of the people we have spoken to like their staff and say that they support them to do what they want to. Many of the people we have spoken to have good healthcare, health action plans and hospital passports. That many people make their own choices about the way they live their lives.

Some important things we have found out that homes and services need to make better. A lot of people we spoke to in supported living do not remember if they signed a tenancy agreement. We spoke to staff about this, they told us everyone signed one when they moved in. We said staff should go over these now and again to make sure everyone understands their rights and responsibilities in their home.

A lot of people we spoke to in all services were not really sure how to complain if they wanted to. We spoke to staff about this they told us everyone is told how to complain. We said staff should go over this to remind people, they could do this at residents meetings or 1-1.

What about the people who could not tell us themselves about their home or service? We have met a lot of people in this time, most people were able to tell us how they feel about their home or service, some people told us by talking to us, some people told us using a computer and some people signed to us. Some people also had staff to help them tell us.

But some people were not able to do this, so we spoke to their families/carers or friends to see how they thought their relative or friend felt. We also asked the family/carer or friend if they thought the home or service was a good one from what they have seen.

What about keeping people safe? While we were doing a check at the end of last year, 1 person told us something that had happened to her in her home that was very bad. We reported this as a safeguarding issue. We ask people if they feel safe in their home, service or out in the community. If they do not we speak to staff or will raise a safeguarding alert if we need to. Some people find it easier to tell us they have a problem than to tell staff themselves.

We have asked every home or service about people having keep safe cards and we have given them information about how to get one if people do not have one. Lots more people now have keep safe cards.

Have the quality checkers made a difference? The quality checkers made recommendation's to services about what residents or service users needed or wanted. The quality checkers made recommendations to services about what residents or service users didn’t need or want.

Just a few of the recommendations He wants to go to the football match so staff should speak to him and staff could take him too” He wants to do the gardening work so staff should speak to him and help him to do this” “That staff help him understand why he takes tablets” “Staff should tell the residents about the community and what’s happening like festivals and events”

All the services so far have said they have acted on or will be acting on the quality checker recommendations. If they cannot act on the recommendations they have told us why. So the quality checkers have made a positive difference !

As some of the funding has ended does this mean the quality checkers service will stop? No because we are very lucky to have been given another years funding by the NCCG. This means we can carry on checking homes and services for people that are funded by health.

We need to work hard to find more funding, how will we do this? We have already started to try to get more funding as we wanted the project to get bigger to employ more people with learning difficulties in a permanent job. We have quality checked some supported living homes for a private service and been paid for this. We want more of these.

We have given a training session to the same private service and been paid for this. We want more of these. We have helped one service to make its paperwork easier for people to understand and been paid for this. We want more of these.

This is not enough so what else can we do? We have given lots of presentations like this one to different services and we also gave one to the Rutland LDPB just before Christmas. We need to do more presentation's and tell more people about our service to see if we can get more funding to take us well into the future

The NHS Boss Simon Stevens wants more people with learning difficulties to have jobs and to help check NHS services. The CCG is already meeting this by funding the quality checkers to check homes and services for people with learning difficulties funded by health.

Something to be excited about! NHS England have developed Care and Treatment Reviews (CTRs) in hospitals. They want people who are experts by their own experience to take part in these reviews. The CTR makes sure that people get the right care, in the right place that meets their needs, and they are involved in any decisions about their care.

The quality checkers are now very pleased to say they are involved in the CTRs. The first thing they did was to look at the paperwork and make changes to make it easier for them to understand. Since then they have completed 3 CTRs and have positive feedback from the commissioner.

We also helped the CCG Commissioner think about what they needed for supported living service providers. We had a workshop to tell them. We met with all the Supported Living services that were chosen to tell them what we found, what was good and what was not so good. Something else

What happened next? Because this worked so well we were then asked by an NCC commissioner to do the same thing for them and we did this in February this year and been paid for it. The CCG commissioner has also asked the quality checkers to be involved with any future services they develop. Future

Important Changes Because of the terrible things that happened at Winterbourne View Hospital, the government and many other services are taking action to make sure this never happens again They have made a code this is called the Driving up Quality Code. The code is voluntary but good services should be happy to sign up for this this will show they really care about the people they support.

Can it involve the quality checkers? The service has to carry out an assessment on their own service to show how they are working towards the code, this is called a self assessment. The quality checkers can support with this by carrying out their checks, the service can then say they have an independent service doing this. We hope this will happen.

One more thing we want to say. We did a presentation in March at the learning disability partnership A.G.M meeting and we thanked them for giving us the funding and for supporting us for the last 2 years. We also want to thank NCCG for funding us for the past 2 years and again for our third year. We especially want to Thank Claira for the support she has given to this project.

STOP PRESS!!! We have been asked by Scott and Sarah from NHS England to help with testing a national tool kit to Quality Check seven types of services: Emergency Departments Community services GPs and Dentists Mental Health and LD Services Acute Hospitals The NHS Quality Checkers programme

Any Questions ?