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Learning, improvement and innovation section

Good and outstanding-rated services encourage and effectively resource the drive for improvement. From effective quality assurance practices to the ability to research and act upon innovation, these services are committed to providing the best care possible and can implement the changes needed.

The following film provides a summary of this area of inspection. It can help you and your teams learn about what will be inspected and what is important to demonstrate to deliver good or outstanding care.

Introducing learning, improvement, and innovation

Duration 02 min 30 sec

The quality of care you provide should continue to evolve to reflect learning, new and more effective ways of working … and where possible, the latest innovations.

To achieve this area of Well-led inspection focus, you will need to have an effective approach when it comes to quality assurance and quality improvement informed by the latest evidence and best practice.

This requires investment, so owners of care services need to be prepared to fund the systems and processes needed. The use of technology to achieve this is increasingly encouraged and celebrated in CQC inspection reports.

Quality assurance processes should be effectively embedded in the service. From spot-checks to internal audits or mock inspections, there are multiple ways to check quality and identify areas for improvement.

Regardless of whether your service has previously met inspection requirements or not, the CQC will be looking for every service to be committed to continual improvement. This might mean implementing minor improvements for some services or major changes for others.

Always be prepared to be able to evidence to the CQC what areas for improvement you identified, how you implemented the improvement and what difference has this made to the care that is provided?

Learning from accidents, incidents and events is looked at in the Safe area of inspection … but the CQC may choose to revisit it here to.

CQC inspection interviews may involve managers, staff, the people you support … as well as external contacts such as commissioners, the local Healthwatch, and others.

Documented evidence the CQC may be interested in seeing includes:

  • Quality assurance systems and audits and any associated action plans
  • Quality based accreditation schemes
  • … and any national or other awards gained.
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Outstanding rated services will have a particularly strong emphasis on quality improvement and innovation. They will be highly collaborative and share what they do with others.

Regulated providers falling below CQC standards may have inconsistent approaches to quality assurance, failing to spot issues or address the root causes of problems at the service.

GO Online combines advice, examples and resources to help you.

CQC Focus

The CQC inspection will focus on the following key line of enquiry when looking at this topic. The additional prompt questions below may be explored as part of their inspection focus.

  • W4 -

    How does the service continuously learn, improve, innovate and ensure sustainability?

  • W4.1 -

    Are resources and support available to develop staff and teams, and drive improvement?

  • W4.2 -

    How effective are quality assurance, information and clinical governance systems in supporting and evaluating learning from current performance? How are they used to drive continuous improvement and manage future performance?

  • W4.3 -

    How is success and innovation recognised, encouraged and implemented?

  • W4.4 -

    How is information from incidents, investigations and compliments learned from and used to drive quality?

  • W4.5 -

    How does the service measure and review the delivery of care, treatment and support against current guidance?

  • W4.6 -

    Are information technology systems used effectively to monitor and improve the quality of care? 

  • W4.M -

    The following questions are specific to CQC monitoring process.  Some prompts will only be asked where relevant to a service type:

    • What are your systems and methods for monitoring the overall quality of the service and for responding to business risks and issues as they arise? For example, quality assurance, information and clinical governance systems and evaluating learning from current performance?
    • How do you use these systems to drive improvement and manage future performance?
    • What have you learned during coronavirus? What learning and improvement has had positive impact for people and/or staff? Do you have examples where coronavirus has led to innovation?

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