Quality Improvement

What is quality and how do we aim to improve it?

Quality is central for Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust. Improving the quality of both the outcomes for service users and their experiences within the Trust are two of the most important drivers for the Trust in the next 5 years.

The Trust's definition of quality has been developed from the views of service users and carers, of staff and the Board. It is informed by NHS policy and health and social care regulation. Quality in Sheffield Health and Social Care Trust is defined as "Health and social care that is service user centred, safe, effective and promotes equality and inclusion".

More detail about Sheffield Health and Social Care Trusts framework for delivering quality services can be found in the Trust Quality Framework

No Health Without Mental Heath

In 2011 the Coalition Government published its mental health strategy "No Health Without Mental Health" which describes the Government's key pledges and how its public sector reforms and commitment to a Big Society will transform public mental health and mental health services.  To view this document (in full or in summary form) please see the Related Documents box on the right hand side of this page.

 

Quality Accounts 

Each year the Trust publishes a Quality Account as part of its Annual Report.  Quality Accounts let the public see how the Trust is committed to continuous quality improvement within the services it provides.  Quality improvement objectives are set by the Trust each year and the Quality Account details the progress made on the objectives for the previous year and describes the objectives for the year ahead.

Quality Accounts 2011-12
For previous year's Quality Accounts please see the Related Documents box on the right hand side of this page. 

If you have any questions about any quality improvements or the Quality Accounts contact Tina Ball (Director of Quality) on 0114 2716393 or e-mail Tina Ball

How quality is assessed

An assessment of the quality of the services provided by SHSC is undertaken periodically by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC is the health and social care regulator for England. Its main activities are:

• Registration of health and social care providers to make sure they are meeting essential common quality standards
• Monitoring and inspection of all health and adult social care
• Using their enforcement powers, such as fines and public warnings or closures, if standards are not being met
• Improving health and social care services by doing regular reviews of how well services are doing and special reviews on areas or services where there are particular concerns about quality
• Reporting the outcomes of our work so that people who use services have information about the quality of their local health and adult social care services. This helps those who arrange and provide services to see where improvement is needed and learn from each other about what works best.

In January 2011 the CQC carried out a planned review of our Trust.  Click here to see the results of this review.

To view SHSC's certificate of CQC registration for 2011 please click here (PDF 37KB).

Compliance with CQC's Essential Standards of Quality and Safety is monitored by SHSC's Integrated Governance Department. Integrated Governance is a system for improving and safeguarding the quality of the services we provide for our service users and their carers. For more information about the declaration or integrated governance within the Trust contact Brian Hockley, Project Manager on 0114 2716394 or e-mail Brian

Prior to 1st April 2010 Trusts had to submit an annual declaration to the CQC regarding compliance with the Standards for Better Health.  See the Related Documents box on the right hand side of this page to view previous declarations.

 

For compliance declarations of other regulations please visit SHSC's Compliance Statements page.

This page was last updated on 19th September 2012