Accreditation eBulletin May 2018

Dear Colleague

Welcome to our second quarterly Clinical Services Accreditation (CSA) newsletter of 2018

Our May edition sets out what the CSA Executive team have been working on in the last few months, as well as where we will be focusing our work in the year ahead.

As the new general data protection regulation (GDPR) comes in to force on the 25 May, you should have now received an email asking if you would like to continue to subscribe to our newsletter. We are delighted to share our regular updates with you, so please do follow the instructions provided in the email if you would like to keep receiving these after 25 May. Further details are provided in the main newsletter below.

As we look ahead to the next few months and building on our work to date, we look forward to working closely with key partners to ensure clinical services accreditation remains at the forefront of national quality improvement.

We are also developing regular mechanisms to facilitate shared learning between accreditation providers, as well as engaging with and supporting clinical services with the development of new accreditation schemes, as part of our early adopter initiative.

And as ever, please feel free to share this newsletter with your colleagues or anyone with an interest in clinical service accreditation. If you know of anyone who would like to subscribe to future editions please ask them to email accreditation@hqip.org.uk

Best Wishes
Sophie Lansdowne
HQIP Programme manager – quality improvement

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Reflection: 'Understanding HQIP’s role and support in Accreditation' workshop

On 10 May 2018 we ran a workshop with providers of accreditation schemes. The first part of the morning focused on the work and outputs of the Clinical Services Accreditation Alliance and how this has been taken forward by HQIP on behalf of, and with the support of, the Clinical Services Accreditation Alliance Sponsor Group. The morning also provided the opportunity to discuss where providers would like to go with accreditation and where HQIP can provide support and strategic direction to help.

The second part of the morning opened with a practical session dedicated to adopting the PAS1616 for both legacy and new schemes. Madeline Bano, Programme Manager at the Royal College of Physicians, shared the RCP’s informative experience of using the PAS1616 to guide the development of a new scheme focused on Improving Quality in Liver Services (IQILS). The British Standards Institution (BSI) also demonstrated their online feedback portal and invited participants to contribute their feedback with regards to the PAS1616. This portal has now been launched and further details are provided later in this newsletter for those who would like to provide feedback.

The final session of the day facilitated discussions around the key criteria for selecting an accreditation provider. We have gathered this feedback and we will use this to produce a written resource for those undertaking this process. This will accompany the other resources we have developed and shared on the day. These resources include a guidance summary to aid the implementation of the PAS1616, the PAS1616 mapped to the CQC’s key lines of enquiry (KLOEs), as well as a breakdown of the stages in the development of an accreditation scheme and HQIP’s formal offer of support for this. Please do get in touch at accreditation@hqip.org.uk if you would like access to any of these resources.

There was great representation from accreditation scheme providers at the workshop and each of the sessions was well received. The morning provided great insight in to what providers would find helpful from HQIP going forward, particularly around providing and disseminating national messaging around the use of accreditation as an integrated approach to quality improvement. The group also expressed their desire for further opportunities to share learning and to focus on specific topic areas. We are developing plans to take both of these pieces of work forward and we will be able to share these shortly.

PAS1616 Feedback

Following its publication in 2016, the BSI PAS1616, a framework of standards for accrediting clinical services, has received significant interest and support, particularly from NHS Providers and the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Over the course of the next few months, the British Standards Institution (BSI) will be conducting a review of the PAS1616 to learn from users’ first year of experience working with the PAS.

To enable this, the BSI has now launched an online portal to facilitate feedback on the PAS1616. The BSI is asking for feedback about its application to inform a review of the standard and subsequent planning for any potential revisions or preparation of supporting materials. To be provided with access to the portal, please get in touch with Elaine Shine, Standards Consultant at the BSI. Elaine can be reached on elaine.shine@bsigroup.com.

Future events and engagement

Following our workshop for accreditation providers, we remain engaged with the BSI and NHS Providers to plan further events specifically for NHS Chief Executives and Trust Medical Directors. We are also continuing our engagement with STP leads to explore how the PAS can support the development of local quality services.

Other aspects of our engagement work include refining our national messaging and working with national bodies to ensure that clinical services accreditation remains at the forefront of, and integrated with, national quality improvement initiatives. Furthermore, we are also continuing our engagement with clinical services who are interested in developing a new scheme.

More information on the development of these pieces of work will be shared shortly.