By Edith Macintosh, Head of Improvement SupportEdith Macintosh

The innovator W Edwards Deming said: “Learning is not compulsory; it’s voluntary. Improvement is not compulsory; it’s voluntary. But to survive we must learn.”

I am passionate about improvement generally but especially improvement that gives people, no matter where they live and what age or stage in life they are at, the chance to live life to the full and as they would choose in order to flourish and live it well.

The Care Inspectorate is not only a scrutiny body it is also an improvement body. In fact, we have a formal responsibility for furthering improvements in the quality of care to help ensure people’s experiences of care are the best they can be.

We recently published our improvement strategy for 2017-19 setting out our crucial role in supporting improvement as well as checking that improvements have a positive impact on outcomes for people. This goes beyond the traditional way of setting targets, recommendations and requirements. It brings a systematic approach to realising improvement in the quality of care.

Our improvement work goes hand in hand with our scrutiny role. Our inspections are increasingly focused on improving the experiences and outcomes for people, not just compliance against procedures and older standards.

New standards

This new improvement strategy supports our direction, which is in line with Scotland’s new Health and Social Care Standards that are being rolled out from April. These new standards bring constructive challenge to providers and commissioners about how they are improving people’s experiences of care. This strong focus on what matters most to people will help build the culture and understanding of improvement further within the Care Inspectorate and across the social care sector.

Our inspectors, team managers, strategic inspectors and improvement support staff are all involved in supporting improvement in care and are involved in improvement projects both large and small all across Scotland. Supporting improvement for people experiencing care is not an aspiration it is a reality and it already happens every day.

What’s always astonishing to me about improvement is that something which seems quite small can make a massive difference; in fact in many cases it can be quite transformational for people.

Measurable improvements

One example is an improvement project within Campsie View Care Home in Kirkintilloch that promotes continence rather than just managing incontinence.

This initiative is supporting measureable improvements to the overall health and wellbeing of the people taking part. Many are now less dependent on care staff and this is impacting positively on their self-esteem and dignity. Becoming continent has also reduced their risk of skin breakdown and urine infections and helped them become more physically active.

For one woman, the results of this improvement project have been life-changing. She had never left the care home because of embarrassment over continence issues, but as a direct result of taking part in the improvement project she achieved her goal of being able to attend her daughter’s wedding and had a wonderful day.

We are clear that responsibility for improving a service always lies with the service provider but we play a crucial role in supporting improvement and making a difference. The strategy sets out our improvement support offer which includes:

  • Direct support provided by inspectors, strategic inspectors and team managers as part of and after an inspection.
  • Specific improvement support from our improvement support team.
  • Working with commissioners and partnerships to broker support for care services that need it.
  • Signposting to effective practice.
  • Developing improvement support practice guides, resources and materials.
  • National improvement programmes led by the Care Inspectorate.

I am confident that as a result of the implementation of the improvement strategy our capacity, ability and opportunity to support improvement will grow and in turn the positive impact on the quality of people’s lives will be significant.

The Care Inspectorate’s Improvement Strategy 2017-2019 is published on our website.

If you would like to find more information and resources from the Care Inspectorate on improving care for people visit The Hub website.