Quality Assurance & Performance Improvement – information for partners

A core function of the Partnership is to monitor the quality of the work undertaken to safeguard children and adults; and to understand the impact of this work in terms of its effectiveness in improving outcomes and keeping children and adults safe from harm.

How we do this is set out in our Quality Assurance Frameworks and this work is overseen by the Quality Assurance (QA) Group.

Our statutory functions include the requirement to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of what is done by partners individually and collectively to safeguard and promote welfare  and advise them on ways to improve.

This can include:

• assessing the effectiveness and impact of the help being provided to children, adults and families, including early help;
• quality assuring practice for example through joint audits of case files involving practitioners and identifying lessons to be learned;
• assess whether board partners are fulfilling their statutory obligations and parallel duties; and
• asking board partners to self-evaluate.

The role of the Partnership is key to shaping the attitude of agencies towards partnership working. A systematic approach to quality assurance and a cycle of continuous learning through constructive challenge will help us establish a positive culture which will cascade through to front-line practice.

Our multi-agency audits are solution-focused and carried out in a spirit of open learning with the intention of further improving outcomes for children, adults and families.

An audit is carried out to ensure that policy/procedure is being followed. It provides evidence of best practice and can demonstrate the quality of our work to external bodies and inspectors. It also allows areas of weakness to be identified and acted upon.

The actual process of carrying out an audit can sometimes be as beneficial as the outcomes. It provides staff with the time and space to reflect critically on practice. Where different agencies are involved in an audit, there is an opportunity to learn about different roles and responsibilities.

The Business Unit will co-ordinate audits, however assistance from partner agencies is essential in order to gather the necessary information needed and access to the appropriate practitioners.

The audit team agree the terms of reference for the audit, act as a consultant throughout the audit and consider the final findings.

It is helpful to have people with a variety of different perspectives within the audit team. The group should therefore include staff from different levels/roles or, where appropriate, different agencies. It is best practice for an audit to be led by someone other than the manager for the area under consideration.

What is involved?
As a minimum any audit will include the following stages:

• establish a task and finish/ audit group
• develop a term of reference (ToR) including an introduction/context, the scope and coverage of the audit, methodology and time frame for completion
• approval of ToR at the QA Group
• review meetings with task and finish group
• updates at other subgroup meetings if required
• production of a final audit report including appropriate recommendations
• report to be presented to the task and finish group in the first instance for quality assurance purposes
• final report to be presented to the QA Group
• approved audit report to published on the website and distributed appropriately.

Who decides the multi-agency audit programme?
We have an annual audit programme which is agreed by the partnership and undertaken on a multi-agency basis.