RQIA consults on proposed improvements to inspection approach

These services include: nursing, residential care and children’s homes; domiciliary care agencies; day care settings; independent hospitals; private dental services and beauty clinics providing laser treatments.

RQIA’s Chief Executive, Glenn Houston said: “For the past year, in our inspections we have assessed whether care in these services is safe, effective and compassionate. During 2016, RQIA proposes to build on this approach to include examination of the quality of leadership within services. We believe that the governance, leadership and management of a service is a crucial indicator of the quality of service delivery for those in receipt of these services.”

He added: “We are also proposing to present a summary of the inspection results on the front cover of each report, using four categories of attainment: excellent, good, requires improvement and unsatisfactory. At a glance, readers will be able to see our key findings from each inspection.

“At some stage in their lives, most people across Northern Ireland will use, or will have a family member who uses, one of these health and social care services. I would encourage anyone interested in the quality of these services to take a few minutes to respond to our consultation at www.rqia.org.uk, which will continue until the end of April 2016.”