ABSTRACT

The world of social and health care has developed a complex set of structures aimed at ensuring that service provision meets core standards, and that care is improved to meet needs. These worthy aims are set within a context of finite resources and the requirement to provide cost-effective and efficient services. There are tensions here, of course, which are clearly played out within and between three levels of social care: the macro level at which performance measures, targets and overall budgets predominate; the agency, team or mezzo level in which local need confronts given budgets;

By the end of the chapter you should:

understand the place of quality assurance, inspection, regulation and performance management in contemporary social work and social care

be able to describe key elements of the regulatory process

be able to think how the processes of monitoring may assist in the protection of adults

be able to identify and critique some of the potential drawbacks of performance management, regulation and inspection for person-centred care and adult protection

be able to consider ways of assuring the quality of and enhancing one’s own practice.