1.1 Analyse how legislative and regulatory frameworks inform quality standards that apply to the work setting

The health and social care setting are quite complex in many ways. This is due to the issues that revolve around. As a result, there are numerous government legislations that have been instituted to help monitor various proponents. It is upon all the stakeholders involved to comply with these regulatory frameworks. It is more of a legal responsibility to ensure that all the areas of service meet the relevant standards. A good example is the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that brought essential standards of safety and quality that have become integral to the workplace. Each standard within the CQC is associated with a given outcome that the people involved have to experience in light of the care that they receive.

From the CQC, Regulation 17 would serve as a good example of how regulatory frameworks tend to inform quality standards, which would be relevant to a work setting. The objective of this regulation is to ensure that care providers have processes and systems that make it possible for them to meet other requirements outlined in the Health and Social Care Act 2008. As a result, care providers are expected to showcase effective governance, auditing systems and including systems. These have to monitor, assess and drive improvement with regards to safety and quality of the services that are being provided (Care Quality Commission, 2017). This also includes the quality of the experience that is pertinent with the people using these services. Given the quality that has been established, the systems are expected to monitor, assess and mitigate the inherent risks associated safety, health and people’s welfare.

Regulation 19 of CQC can also be used in showing how regulatory frameworks tend to inform on the quality standards that are prevalent with the work setting. The regulation is meant to ensure that care providers employ only “proper and fit” staff. This is to ensure that the people employed have the ability to provide treatment and care which is appropriate in accordance to their capacity (Care Quality Commission, 2017). Attainment of this regulation is made possible by conducting robust recruitment procedures. As a result, the staff that is employed usually has the ability to enhance quality standards in the designated areas. This results in long-term positive gains to the beneficiaries.

The examples listed above have tried to show that legislative and regulatory frameworks are instituted with the objective of enhancing quality standards in the work setting. Lack of these frameworks would lead to deplorable conditions as a result of reduced quality.

1.2 Analyse how quality standards influence positive outcomes for individuals

In the health and social care sector, quality standards tend to influence positive outcomes for individuals. All social and health care practitioners want to ensure that they enhance the best care possible in the services they offer to attain the best practice standards. This falls under Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, which talks about good governance. This regulation talks about social and health care audit. The audits are a fundamental building block for governance, driving continuous improvement and assuring the quality of services (NHS, 2017).

Care audits help in ensuring that quality standards have been met. This is by identifying unmet needs or unsatisfactory variations in care, showcasing excellence across varied sectors and driving improvements in the relevant areas. The people that desire care to be of high quality must have an opportunity to make consequential choices based on transparent, clear and comparable information.

Simply put, care audit helps in establishing quality standards. This is because care audit is positioned with the requirements and expectations of government policy that includes departmental objectives around dignity, personalisation, integration of social and health care, dementia strategies, end of life care as well as the prerequisites of statutory regulation (Care Quality Commission, 2017).

The benefits of the care audit are the indication of how quality standards influence positive outcomes for individuals. This is because care audit can help relevant stakeholders to work in partnership with the individuals that use the services in order to prioritise varied local concerns. When the concerns are given precedence, it becomes easy to find solutions for eradicating or mitigating them. As a result, the people seeking care services tend to get quality services in the long-run, something which is a positive outcome. Care audit also ensures that there is sustenance and implementation of improvements in the services that are being offered (NHS, 2017). This is because all the aspects that would bring along hindrance are identified, and necessary adjustments are made. The concept of providing evidence in light of the current practice compared to national standards also results in positive outcomes for individuals. This is because the stakeholders involved usually check what they are doing with what is required of them at all times. This helps in ensuring that they are doing the right thing, and as a result, they are providing the desired services to the people in need.  In the long-run, this will result in positive outcomes for the people involved.

1.3 Evaluate a range of methods that can be used to measure the achievement of quality standards

Health and social care sectors ought to attain certain standards in order to ensure that the people involved are getting the desired outcomes. For this reason, there ought to be regulations to ensure that quality standards have been maintained. In order to ascertain this, there has to be a range of methods that can be used in measuring the achievement of quality standards.

Among the methods is conducting audits to ensure that the relevant regulatory and legislative frameworks have been adhered to. These frameworks are usually meant to ensure that quality standards have been maintained at the workplace. This is due to the requirements that are usually brought forward. The audits involved would assess the systems and processes involved in the relevant sector. Here, there would be an analysis of all the staff that are involved with offering various health and social care services. The issue of inspection would be assessing whether each stakeholder is acting accordance to how it is expected of them. There would also be an assessment of the systems being used. The systems ought t be within the state’s required standard. The way in which the stakeholders interact with the systems would be audited too in order to ascertain whether appropriate standards of conducting activities are being upheld.

Another method that would be used to measure the achievement of quality standards is seeking the opinion of the patients. This can be done by way of interviews, questionnaires, focus groups among others. Patients interact with almost every aspect of the health and social care with their visits to the varied facilities. As a result, they have vast knowledge of how things are operating. The mechanisms used to get the information from them would facilitate for honest and fair opinion since the participation boils to one’s will. Here, they would give their feedback and the complaints that they might have. This includes things that they did not like during their encounters and those that they found to be of acceptable standard. Simply put, the patients will have a lot to say without holding back. The reports derived from these encounters will help to ascertain the levels with which quality standards have been achieved.

The methods that can be used to measure the achievement of quality standards in health and social care setting are many. The above evaluation has just touched that seem quite common and understandable to many.

1.4 Explain how quality assurance standards relate to performance management

The main objective of performance management is promoting and improving effectiveness at the workplace. It is more of a continuous process whereby employees and managers tend to work together in monitoring, planning and reviewing various aspects of the workplace. As a result, quality assurance standards tend to relate to performance management.

In pursuit of quality assurance, the relevant management in the social and health care sectors ensures that they have enhanced supervision of all the relevant staff. Supervision usually entails guiding, instructing, observing and monitoring. Care work can be emotionally demanding on various occasions, but varied researches have shown that relevant managers can use supervision to bring out the best out of every staff member (Glasby & Dickinson, 2014). Supervision ensures that appropriate information has been passed, it facilitates control, ensures optimal utilisation of resources, spearheads discipline, maintains groups unity, improves motivation and communication among other things. As a result, it can be regarded as a quality assurance standard that is closely related to performance management since it helps in ensuring that the relevant departments are performing effectively.

Another quality assurance standard that shows a correlation to performance management is staff appraisal. Performance appraisal usually accords supervisors the opportunity of assessing subordinates’ work performance. In case there are any gaps in development and training needs they are easily identified through this process. As a result, employees end up getting the appropriate training that helps them in executing their duties effectively. Good performance is also rewarded during the appraisal process. This works as motivation for employees as they strive to be recognised for their efforts (Glasby & Dickinson, 2014). It results in efficiency and effectiveness, which are usually targeted by the enactment of performance management.

Disciplinary actions can also be regarded as a form of quality assurance standard. Disciplinary actions are usually instigated when the relevant party is not operating as per the required standards. Discipline is vital in the workplace since it ensures every stakeholder has adhered to the governing rules and regulations. It makes it possible for the correction of unacceptable behaviour at the workplace (NHS, 2017). When disciplinary actions are instigated, the affected parties tend to rectify their mistakes by doing what is expected of them. Potential disciplinary cases are also deterred as people are afraid of the consequences that might accrue in case they behaved in a certain way. This helps to boost performance at the workplace since every stakeholder is operating as they are expected.

In conclusion, it is apparent that quality assurance standards are meant to ensure that everything is operating at its optimal level. This helps in promoting effectiveness, which is the main objective of performance management.

References

Care Quality Commission,. (2017). The Independent Regulator of Health and Social Care in England. Cqc.org.uk. Retrieved 18 January 2017, from https://www.cqc.org.uk/

Glasby, J. & Dickinson, H. (2014). Partnership working in health and social care: What is integrated care and how can we deliver it? (2nd ed.). Bristol: Policy Press.

NHS,. (2017). NHS Choices. Nhs.uk. Retrieved 17 January 2017, from http://www.nhs.uk/pages/home.aspx

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