Quality Control Procedures used in connection with Social Care Assessments

The request was successful.

Kenneth Boddington

Dear Lancashire County Council,

Given that quality control is a procedure or set of procedures intended to ensure that a performed service adheres to a defined set of quality criteria, please supply a copy of the defined set of quality criteria and the procedures used to control the quality of Social Care assessments carried out by members the County Commissioning and Remodelling Team and members of the LDA Community Team. If there are no such criteria or if no procedures exist please state this.

Yours faithfully,

Kenneth Boddington

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

 

Dear Mr Boddington,

 

Request for information

 

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your email dated 24/05/17, in which
you request the disclosure of information.

 

I can confirm that your enquiry will now be assigned to an officer who
will commence a search for the information you require and they will
respond in due course. The deadline date for issuing you with full
response is 22/06/17. We will endeavour to provide a response well in
advance of this date, however, should we envisage any delays, or require
more details from you, we will contact you immediately.

 

If you have any queries about the above, please do not hesitate to contact
us, quoting ref. 936.785

 

Yours sincerely,

 

On Behalf of the Information Governance Team

Lancashire County Council

PO Box 78

County Hall

Preston

PR1 8XJ

[1][email address]

[2]www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

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Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

3 Attachments

Dear Mr Boddington

 

Access to Information under the Freedom of Information Act (2000)

 

Further to your request dated 24 May, in which you request disclosure of
information under the provisions of the above Act; I am now in a position
to respond:

 

Request:

 

Given that quality control is a procedure or set of procedures intended to
ensure that a performed service adheres to a defined set of quality
criteria, please supply a copy of the defined set of quality criteria and
the procedures used to control the quality of Social Care assessments
carried out by members the County Commissioning and Remodelling Team and
members of the LDA Community Team. If there are no such criteria or if no
procedures exist please state this.

 

Response:

 

The County Council has an Assessment Policy (attached) which sets out how
the assessment process for adult social care should:

 

• Be carried out in such a way, and be sufficiently transparent for
individuals to gain a better understanding of their situation

• Help to identify what a person needs to help them function, maintain
their independence and have a reasonable quality of life.

 

This policy is not specific to the County Commissioning and Remodelling
Team and members of the LDA Community Team, but provides an overarching
framework for all assessments.  The assessments carried out by the
Remodelling Team are no different to those carried out in other areas of
social care and so the governance arrangements are the same.

 

Also attached is the Risk Assessment referred to in the Policy itself as
well as a published document for service users, provided for context.

 

All of the County Council's Adult Social Care Policies and procedures are
being reviewed for Care Act Compliance so there may be a revised version
of the Policy published later this year. The attached is the current,
agreed, Policy.

 

Kind regards

 

Miss SPatel

Information Access Officer

Information Governance Team

Lancashire County Council

 

[1]www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Kenneth Boddington

Dear Lancashire County Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Lancashire County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Quality Control Procedures used in connection with Social Care Assessments'.
This complaint concerns my request ref 936.785.
My request stated:
Given that quality control is a procedure or set of procedures intended to ensure that a performed service adheres to a defined set of quality criteria, please supply a copy of the defined set of quality criteria and the procedures used to control the quality of Social Care assessments carried out by members the County Commissioning and Remodelling Team and members of the LDA Community Team. If there are no such criteria or if no procedures exist please state this.

Instead of receiving the information I requested, I received information concerning how ideally the assessment process should be carried out. There was no mention in the information provided of the FACE Overview Assessment Form v7 which is the form used to record the results of the assessment process.

My complaint is that no information was provided concerning the control of quality of assessments carried out. I would expect that if a Quality control procedure existed it would result in a comparison of the specification (the criteria) detailing how assessments should be carried out and what information should be recorded with the manner in which the assessments were actually carried out and what information was actually recorded. The purpose of this being to see if the actuality complied with the requirements of the specification.
I am also complaining that the reply to my request did not contain an answer with respect to whether criteria existed nor whether quality control procedures exist when I explicitly asked that you do so.

I would be grateful if you could now answer the questions I asked.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/q...

Yours faithfully,

Kenneth Boddington

Kenneth Boddington

Dear Lancashire County Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Lancashire County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Quality Control Procedures used in connection with Social Care Assessments'.
This complaint concerns my request ref 936.785.
My request stated:
Given that quality control is a procedure or set of procedures intended to ensure that a performed service adheres to a defined set of quality criteria, please supply a copy of the defined set of quality criteria and the procedures used to control the quality of Social Care assessments carried out by members the County Commissioning and Remodelling Team and members of the LDA Community Team. If there are no such criteria or if no procedures exist please state this.

Instead of receiving the information I requested, I received information concerning how ideally the assessment process should be carried out. There was no mention in the information provided of the FACE Overview Assessment Form v7 which is the form used to record the results of the assessment process.

My complaint is that no information was provided concerning the control of quality of assessments carried out. I would expect that if a Quality control procedure existed it would result in a comparison of the specification (the criteria) detailing, amongst other things, how assessments should be carried out and what information should be recorded with the manner in which the assessments were actually carried out and what information was actually recorded. The purpose of this being to see if the actuality complied with the requirements of the specification.
I am also complaining that the reply to my request did not contain an answer with respect to whether criteria existed or whether quality control procedures exist when I explicitly asked that you do so.

I would be grateful if you could now answer the questions I asked.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/q...

Yours faithfully,

Kenneth Boddington

Kenneth Boddington

Dear Lancashire County Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I have written to you to request an internal review of Lancashire County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Quality Control Procedures used in connection with Social Care Assessments' but not received an acknowledgement of this request. I would be grateful if you would acknowledge my request.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/q...

Yours faithfully,

Kenneth Boddington

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Boddington,

Further to your email of 21 June, I am now in a position to respond. I have made further enquiries with relevant colleagues.

The County Council does not have a defined set of quality criteria or specification for assessments. Instead we have a framework for undertaking an holistic assessment which is identified in the Assessment Policy provided previously and a supervision policy that all social care will all work to. Social Workers are professionally qualified which deems them qualified to undertake social care assessments. The Supervision Policy provides our documented mechanism for controlling the quality of Social Care assessments and I have attached this for your information.

I trust this is useful. If you remain dissatisfied you may refer the matter to the Information Commissioner's Office, contact details for which are:

The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113
Email: [email address]
Website: http://www.ico.org.uk

Yours sincerely,

Mr M Sayles

Senior Information Access Officer
Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council

www.lancashire.gov.uk

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