[Sandra Lomax]

Its been a while now since the mad rush to ensure that all P&P were in place for the QAF assessments and service reviews.

Many services will have developed and re-shaped since then. Outcomes Monitoring springs to mind as an obvious change in P&P.

Are your P&P up to date?

Would a new member of staff coming into your service know how to do their job today if they read your P&P?

Is your Customer information up to date? Are customers being accurately informed before during and following move on from your service?

Are you still regularly sending it out to partners and other organisations informing people about your services?

Are customers still involved in the review of these?

I would like to hear your views.

[Sandra Lomax]

QAF refreshed 2009 requires all P&P to be less than 3 years old.

There are some significant legislative changes that need to be addressed and some changes to the QAF which mean that P&P need to be updated.

Heres some examples:

1. one element of the new QAF is demonstrating Person centred support planning - do your P&P clearly demonstrate how the customer "drives" their own programme of support and how this is embedded in your approach?

2. QAF requires support plans to incorporate "SMART " objectives - is a "SMART" approach written into your P&P and the tools you use to deliver and market the service?

3. Safeguarding & Protection from Abuse - Child Protection needs to be incorporated - staff need to be trained - changes in legislation

4. Involvement & Empowerment - New core objective - approach needs to be embedded throughout P&P and tools used to support each process including Customer Information Booklets

5. Risk Management - required to demonstrate "appropriate risk taking" and how customers are equally involved in risk assessment & risk management process - demonstrate how risk management is not used to restrict/precent but to enable and facilitate.

These are just some examples of how your P&P will need updating.

As the sector prepares for personalisation and Individual Budgets, this is also an opportunity to review performance monitoting & reporting systems, management & delivery processes, information & literature, and be well placed to attract new customers from the offset.

Are yours up to date?