The Care inspectorate Wales (CIW) has changed its inspection framework, the full details of which can be found here:
https://www.careinspectorate.wales/how-we-inspect-adult-and-childrens-services
The changes are widespread and include a change in the themes that CIW is looking at as part of its inspections, so there are now 4 themes instead of 3. These are well-being, care and support, environment and leadership and management.
Under the themes there is now a reduced number of Lines of Enquiry, down from 22 to 11 for residential services, and 12 for domiciliary care. These lines are simpler to follow and understand and should reduce the overlap between them.
As we already know, services are all going to be rated for each theme in any inspection completed as ‘excellent’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ or ‘requires significant improvement’.
But perhaps the main change is in how these lines of enquiry now support the inspection judgements and the provision of a rating for each of the themes. The CIW has developed descriptors of ratings for each line of enquiry that give detail of what services potentially could look like at each rating level for all the lines of enquiry. This is much more transparent than it used to be and provides benchmarks for what services should look like for each rating.
The CIW is also being more transparent about how it decides what action to take with services, and this is based on risk and the impact of what it has found on people that use services and the likelihood of harm being caused. Again, all the information is included in the inspection framework document. Services and inspectors have the same information, so everyone knows what to expect.
So, what have we done about these changes?
- We have mapped all the policies to the most relevant line of enquiry, so the system is still fully up to date and reflects CIW’s focus and the regulations
- We have updated our digital mock inspection and feedback centres to align to the framework changes
Time will tell how well the new CIW methodology will work, but it does seem simpler, more transparent and objective, so let’s hope that it is used as it is designed and that we have a regulator that we can all respect and work with to make the lives of people that use services better and more fulfilling.
View the QCS Inspection and Feedback Centres which includes digital mock inspections and surveys here:
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