National Care Forum Quality First Framework
Rapport Housing & Care, has officially pledged its support to the National Care Forum’s (NCF) ‘Quality First’ framework, signing the Quality First Commitment to provide safe, high quality care and support services with an aim to continuously improving quality. The Quality First Commitment will be implemented following two years of work to improve our Care Quality Commission (CQC) ratings and quality assurance systems.
Katrina Levett, Director of Operations at Rapport Housing & Care commented: “Providing quality care is our priority, along with our values of kindness, compassion and being responsive to people’s needs. Good quality care is at the heart of everything we do, and stand for, as a charity. Signing up to the NCF Quality First framework just further underlines our commitment to our service users and to high quality care and support.”
Quality First is a framework for member organisations to assess themselves, and has been designed to assist members to both demonstrate and provide evidence of its commitment to quality to the regulatory and commissioning bodies, including the CQC. Rapport Housing & Care has a responsibility to provide evidence about what it is doing and how it is doing it, and as part of this commitment, the CEO and Chairman will also be required to sign up to the Quality First Commitment and pledge their ongoing support.
There are 10 elements to NCF ‘Quality First’ including; commitment, service user participation and involvement, innovation, community involvement, continuous quality improvement, HR development, accessible information, sound governance, accountability and financial integrity, evidence-based practice and learning and gaining the confidence and trust of people who use the services and their families. Quality First is a nationally recognised mark of quality accredited by the National Care Forum and we are immensely proud to be able to pledge our commitment.
The National Care Forum represents the interests of not-for-profit health and social care providers in the UK. As part of their commitment to benefit the not-for-profit sector they have developed a Quality First Framework. This framework demonstrates the commitment of NCF members to providing high quality and continually improving services. Rapport Housing & Care have decided, as a member of the NCF, to commit to the Quality First Framework which will ensure that the organisation not only meets the outcomes of Health and Social Care legislation, but will assist in our commitment to quality excellence in our sector The 10 elements to NCF Quality First that Rapport Housing & Care will be pledging to commit to are:
- Commitment – Pledging to maintain and promote ethical practices and the highest standards of quality. It is a commitment to continuous improvement
- Service user participation and involvement – Actively engaging people who use services and family members
- Innovation – Implementing models and practices that are evidence based and demonstrate person/relationship centred care
- Community involvement – Engaging in community citizenship and service, volunteer involvement and relationship building
- Continuous quality improvement (CQI) – Enhance existing programmes, improving effectiveness for people who use our services
- Human resource development – Providing training, competitive wages/benefits, and a supportive work environment
- Accessible information – Providing accessible and easy to understand information in suitable formats for people using our services and their families
- Sound governance, accountability and financial integrity – Achieving and maintaining high standards of management and governance
- Evidence-based practice and learning – Using and sharing the latest research findings to improve care and support
- Gaining the confidence and trust of people who use the services and their families – Committing to a policy of openness and transparency to increase understanding of our services and earn the trust of the people we serve and their families — as well as the public, policymakers and the media.
