Quality & Monitoring
Leaving Care Solutions follows a systematic approach to quality management and monitoring, including external certification, an internal Quality Management Framework and a culture of continual improvement, informed by young people’s views. We hold ISO-9001 Quality Assurance accreditation to evidence our commitment to the highest quality standards and continual improvement.
Quality
Feedback from young people, their families, commissioners and partners is central to our continuous improvement. All staff are trained to gather, hear and act upon young people’s views, whenever it is safe to do so.
Our Quality Management Framework allows us to identify good practice and any issues of concern, including lessons learned, by following recognised techniques:
- Regular case file audits, including themed audits (e.g. safeguarding, risk, supervision)
- Direct observation
- Unannounced visits to shared homes
- Coaching by Quality Assurance specialists
- Scheduled reviews of all policies and procedures
- A clear service improvement cycle that informs Service Improvement Plans
- A comprehensive Comments, Compliments and Complaints Procedure that feeds learning into service delivery
- A Participation and Engagement Strategy, developed in accordance with the Hear by Right framework
- Regular staff performance reviews, including feedback from young people
- Senior Management Team reviews of performance, including KPIs and young people’s feedback.
Monitoring and improvement
Our staff are trained as licensed users of the evidence-based Outcomes Star™ monitoring system. As well as providing valuable information about progress to guide our work and report to the Local Authority, the format encourages young people to co-produce their own progress records and encourages participation, ownership and accuracy.
Quality indicators are confirmed or adjusted during mobilisation and logged on our secure Case Management System, alongside activity data for contract monitoring (e.g. referral response times, support hours). We hold Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation for our IT security.
Our customisable database enables us to add or amend reporting fields at individual and whole-service levels. We develop individual contract dashboards to extract meaningful real-time data and produce bespoke monitoring reports detailing ‘how much we did, how well we did it, and what impact we’ve had’.
This system monitors services on a regular basis, providing monthly management information for review by senior management. This enables early identification of areas where performance requires improvement, and immediate implementation of remedial actions to protect outcomes and young people’s experiences. The process also enables us to highlight areas of high performance, ensuring best practice is identified and shared with teams locally, regionally and nationally.
Using evidence-based monitoring systems, we accurately track our young people’s progress towards independent living and continually assess progress to improve the quality of our service.
Support & Independence
Personalised support planning identifies areas where young people will benefit most, ensuring individual plans are appropriate and targeted.
Accommodation
At LCS, we will only place young people in accommodation that we and our family would be happy to live in.
Safeguarding
LCS implements Safer Recruitment practices which ensure all staff are appropriately qualified and experienced to deliver a safe, high quality service.