ABSTRACT
Generally quality assurance is viewed as a way of protecting the needs and interests of clients, and of satisfying inspectors and senior managers that basic standards of care are being met. The whole process also has another function; it is a way of giving systematic feedback to staff, and hence, if handled rightly, of giving them assurance in their work. In all assessment of care practice, then, great attention should be paid to the ‘developmental loop’; that is, data collected should be made available to staff as a basis for discussion, in order that a plan can be drawn up for the improvement of care. Ideally each quality assurance round will generate such a plan, and the next round will provide information on whether the plan has actually been effectively implemented. There is an insincere way of going about quality assurance, which consists essentially of ‘being seen to be doing the right thing’. It is more challenging by far to confront the realities, and in particular to assess what is actually occurring to the clients in the process of care. When this is done it will be necessary to face up to some issues that had been avoided, but there is the possibility of setting a virtuous circle into motion, with huge increases in job satisfaction. [. . .]
