Return of the Peer Reviewers

Our Peer Reviewers returned for the meeting of the year yesterday, where they re-defined their roles to ensure we’re making the most of our unique and collaborative team.

Held in Manchester Airport our team of Peer Reviewers and their support workers got together with our policy team Graeme McConnell, Policy and Practice Manager and Katie Cairns, Policy Officer to make key decisions on the policies that directly affect the people we support. 

Graeme led the meeting with a presentation on EFQM, our new quality model. We’ve had great news in this area as we passed our latest assessment. And, more good news – The outlook looks promising to improve on this at our next assessment as we achieved enough to receive the level above the one that we had applied for.

The next step for EFQM is to bring in the Peer Reviewers to help our Quality team perform internal assessments. Our fantastic team said they we’re delighted to be able to take part. There will be a total of 20 assessments taking place next year with representation from 1 peer reviewer for every assessment, so there will be loads of opportunities for our team to get involved.

Next on the agenda for our Peer Reviewers was an inclusive discussion on policies, and this is where the real magic happened. The voice of the Peer Reviewers is a direct representation of the people we support, so when it comes to policies that directly affect them – well, we think there’s no better person to hear from.

The policies involved colleagues using facilities within the homes of the people we support. This includes but is not limited to; Kettles, Fridges and Electrical Plugs. The vote on this was unanimous, that colleagues must ask before they use any facilities whilst in the home of someone we support. They commented that it is a matter of respect and courtesy, so whilst this policy is amended by our team, we ask you to be mindful of this.

Other policies included use of personal mobile phones whilst delivering care, and policies surrounding going out for food or a drink with the people we support. In particular, the policy outlined parameters around limits to spending to prevent anyone vulnerable being taken advantage of. Again, the decisions made were unanimous from our team of Peer Reviewers.

Finally, we discussed how else our team Peer Reviewers will get involved in our organisation next year. Our Peer Reviewers won’t just be attending our internal quality assessments, but they will also represent at our local and national GameChangers. Most notably our Peer Reviewers will become immersed into our induction process, right from the initial stage of interview and beyond.

We’re really looking forward to seeing the team become fully embedded into our organisation. It’s not just Community Integrated Care that see’s the benefit of our great relationship; The British Quality Foundation have invited us to apply for a Collaboration Award for ‘Working in partnership with our customers’. Whilst we don’t call the people we support our customers, we do acknowledge our unique and strong alliance, which truly is, second to none.