Quality assurance
Coventry Children’s Commissioning team has a comprehensive quality assurance framework that they use to assess placement provision from the external market and to internal residential provision.
The overarching principles of quality assurance (QA) activity in commissioning placements for Children who are Looked After are:
- Keeping children safe
- Ensuring high quality provision
- Ensuring best value/ value for money
The commissioning team’s QA activity aims to ensure placement contracts are being delivered by commissioned providers as specified, using an outcome-based approach, supporting and monitoring activities and reacting to significant failures in the market in a robust and consistent way.
Where a provider with a Coventry child receives an inadequate judgement from Ofsted for example, officers from the Commissioning team will endeavour to visit within 24 hours to assess the effectiveness and safety of the placement for the child, seeking assurance from the provider on their service improvement plan.
The commissioning team uses a risk-based approach to manage and monitor quality in provision through reviewing a range of data to direct resources where they are needed most and can make the greatest impact. This includes RAG rating providers using the following criteria:
- High risk – Significant concerns/inadequate provider/home/ placement stop/ LADO investigation. If a provider is judged Inadequate by Ofsted a visit to the placement must be made on the same working day and a decision made within 24 hours as to whether the child is safe to remain in placement.
- Medium risk – Moderate concerns/placement is unsettled.
- Low risk – Minor concerns/placements are stable.
The commissioning team undertake planned and responsive quality assurance activities to assess and review the quality of provision. These include:
- Responsive visits to residential, fostering and supported accommodation providers where immediate safeguarding concerns or serious complaints have been raised.
- A programme of planned visits to Coventry residential and supported accommodation provision in and out of Coventry based on levels of risk. We aim that each provider who has a Coventry child in placement should be visited at least once a year.
- Regular contract management meetings and monitoring of Key Performance Indicators with providers who deliver Coventry residential and supported accommodation block provision.
- Regular contract management meetings with the main external fostering providers.
- Information sharing with other West Midlands local authorities on quality concerns with providers on regional frameworks.
The commissioning team aim to make this process challenging but supportive for the provider, discussing their findings and offering feedback, working with the provider to consider service improvement measures.
The commissioning team continue to work with the children’s participation team, social care and IROs to gain feedback on placements from children and young people e.g. via the Pledge Survey and at CLA reviews.