Page 22 - Community Living Magazine 30-3

reSeArCH
QuAlItY CHeCkIng Findings
First, we asked the quality checkers to
emPowerS BotH tell us what impact their job had on them
and on other people with learning
PeoPle AnD StAFF disabilities they visited in the services.
Some spoke about having seen
changes made as a result of the
Choice Support carried out research to quality check they had carried out.
fnd out how quality checking might help
individuals and whether it made a Others spoke about their own learning,
difference to their support provision. how they had developed new skills,
about the importance of having a paid
thomas Doukas reports. job and about how their experience
was appreciated and acknowledged.

Background throughout much of England. For the survey, we asked the following
here is very little research on ‘quality Established in 1984, we aim to question: How much having a job has
Tchecking’ and what there is tends continuously improve the quality helped you on a scale from 0-10 (0 is
to be informal and limited to reports of our services by listening to what the lowest, no impact – 10 is the
produced by organisations and support people want. We work directly highest, a lot of impact).
providers who employ people known with people and their families to
as Quality Checkers. shape support that truly meets Over three quarters of the people with
their needs. learning disabilities who flled out the
Quality checking was frst established questionnaire survey indicated that
by Skills for People, a user-led With the establishment of an having a job had had a lot of impact
voluntary organisation working in the involvement team in 2007 and since on them by scoring this 7 or above,
North-East of England to make sure Choice Support has worked closely while only 24% said it hadn’t helped
disabled people can be in control of with Skills for People to employ and them much.
their own lives. At the beginning of the train over 70 people with disabilities
millennium, Skills for People launched to become quality checkers. The survey of service providers looked
‘It’s My Life’, a set of user-led quality at the impact of the quality check on
standards that have been widely used From February to June 2016, services. We asked them:
to check the quality of support services. Choice Support carried out some
research to fnd out how quality 1 Do you feel this quality check has
In 2002, Paradigm launched REACH, checking might be different from had an impact on the residents?
a set of voluntary standards designed professional-led approaches (such as
to encourage good practice in service audits) and how such tools 2 How would you rate the impact of the
supported living. The REACH might empower individuals. quality check on a scale from 0-10?
standards remain the most widely We spoke to some disabled people
recognised standards in relation to carrying out the quality checks and Eighteen services participated.
supported living. to some people with learning The numbers are small because we
disabilities whose services were limited the survey to services who had
Choice Support is a leading social care being assessed. We looked at a quality check in the last year. We did
charity providing services to people whether this had made a difference this because we wanted to keep the data
with a wide range of support needs to their individual support provision. current.

Around 61% of the support providers
StuDY tItle: tHe ImPACt oF QuAlItY said ‘yes’ it had had an impact on
CHeCkIng on tHe lIVeS oF PeoPle wItH residents and 22% said ‘no’.
Others didn’t answer because no
leArnIng DISABIlItIeS recommendations were reported
following the check. In answer to our
Aims: second question, half of the providers
The question we asked is: How is Quality Checking different from rated the impact above 7 indicating a
professional-led approaches and how can such tools empower individuals? high impact on nine services. Of those
who scored under 7, only one provider
method: rated the impact as lower than 5,
Questionnaire surveys and interviews of 67 people with learning disabilities while 17% replied ‘don’t know’
employed as Quality Checkers; surveys and visits to 18 support providers (no recommendations were reported
across London, who had a check done in their services. We also looked at following the check).
providers’ action plans after a quality check visit and followed this with a
second visit. Finally, we surveyed 23 people with learning disabilities who live At the interviews, we asked people
in the services we checked. to tell us what they thought about the
quality check visit and about the report

20 Vol 30 No 3 | Spring 2017 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk