Audit process

The Audit Process will seek robust evidence that the key outcomes have been met. 

As a minimum, TEC Quality certified organisations must: 

− Have an agreed process in place for passing calls to the emergency services and other NHS pathways including Urgent Community Response

Teams. This shall include the use of the TEC Quality Decision Support Tool to ensure referrals are made to the most appropriate responder

service.

− Have documented procedures implemented to quality assure call handler activity through regular call audit. This shall include as a minimum, 2

calls per month for each person who handles calls, of which at least one shall be an 'end to end' emergency service call. This shall be rotated

across all emergency services.

− Have a suite of procedures in place which support the monitoring process. These should be evidence based where applicable, reflecting local

and national policy and guidance.

− Ensure that the wider needs of users and carers are considered and that these are clearly documented.

− Demonstrate that the needs of service users are assessed in line with contractual requirements and that the service is able to meet those

changing needs.

− Have processes and procedures in place, to process all the types of calls that can be received, or made. Including, but not limited to:

• Inbound alarms and alerts

• Outbound/virtual calls e.g. medication reminders

• Where multiple/connected platforms are utilised

• Welfare/wellbeing calls

• Maintenance calls

• Etc.

− Where required and with consent, demonstrate that users are signposted to other agencies which might help meet their wider needs.

− Demonstrate that TEC monitoring and/or Lifestyle Monitoring contributes to the achievement of agreed outcomes for service users and carers.

− Have procedures in place to ensure a service user’s welfare when they cannot be contacted following:

• an emergency alarm

• non-emergency alert/trigger

• Outbound welfare/wellbeing call

− Continue to monitor a Service User’s welfare where a call has been passed to a responder e.g. NOK, or the Emergency Services until that

responder arrives. Services can choose how they do this as long as the outcome is achieved.g key safe codes.

− Have an agreed Call Handler-specific training programme in place and ensure that relevant training is reviewed, updated/repeated at defined

intervals, e.g. Customer Care, first-level fault diagnosis, outbound welfare/wellbeing calls. The review process shall be conducted annually as a

minimum, with refresher training conducted in line with subject matter, or certification timelines.

− Have access to support from senior managers at all times via a dedicated on-call structure.

− Demonstrate their ability to match capacity to meet fluctuations in activity, especially at periods of peak demand.

− Ensure that frequent callers are identified and that there is an escalation process in place.

   − Have procedures in place for authorising access to service user premises and confirming identity, e.g. remote door release, or sharing key safe

codes.

− Demonstrate that all voice communication relating to alarm handling is recorded.

− Ensure that there is a documented mechanism in place which provides support for staff following a difficult, or distressing call

− Have effective Disaster recovery and Business Continuity plans in place, which are compliant with the Business Continuity Module.

Organisations will have conducted a full risk assessment, which considers capacity to manage the anticipated call volumes and to house staff for

a sustained period. Organisations shall ensure that performance management processes are in place with the organisation providing disaster

recovery on their behalf.

− Ensure that power and communication connectivity is protected. As a minimum, organisations shall have contracts in place that ensure the

quickest available attention from suppliers.

− Where disaster recovery is offered as a service, the solution shall be fully risk assessed, which considers capacity to manage the anticipated call

volumes and where applicable, to house staff for a sustained period. Organisations shall ensure that performance management processes are in

place, which shall be contractually agreed.

− Organisations shall have a procedure/process to advise TEC Quality of any significant incidents, for example:

• Death of a service user resulting in the investigation at Coroner Court/Procurator Fiscal,

• Where they are unable to deliver the service for whatever reason, e.g. service outage, staff shortage

• Etc.

− Organisations shall have a procedure/process in place, to inform TEC Quality, where they are planning to change critical systems, such as

monitoring platforms, or IT infrastructure. Migration plans, risk assessments and contingency plans shall be provided to TEC Quality, who will be

advised of any issues which affect the service delivery arising from the migration.

− Have a process to conduct an analysis of and act upon non-emergency data from connected care equipment where used and where this

information is translated into actions to support the service user.

− Have a procedure and process to support the installation service provider.

− This should include but not limited to:

- identifying and reporting TEC Equipment that is failing inordinately, due to the Analogue to Digital transition

- the testing of new equpment and transition times to connect to the Monitoring Centre.

− Have processes in place, to identify alarms that have failed to connect and to escalate the response to contact the service user to establish if there is an emergency. This shall include, but is not limited to:

• The actions required,

• The timescales for actions to be conducted,

• Identify who is responsible for the process.

− Have a procedure and process in place to provide evidence of annualised platform downtime. This should include but not limited to:

- The reasons for downtime.

- The analysis of incident and actions taken.

- Timescales of incident

- Person responsible for overseeing the incident.

- Evidence of review of the end to end System design.

− Have a procedure and process in place to provide evidence of single instance platform downtime. This should include but not limited to:

- The reasons for downtime.

- The analysis of incident and actions taken.

- Timescales of incident

- Person responsible for overseeing the incident.

- Evidence of review of the end to end System design.

− Provide evidence that the applicable requirements of BS 9518 for monitoring of fire detection have been implemented.

− Ensure that where fire service attendance is required, all fire alarm calls are passed to the fire service within the time parameters specified within BS 9518.

− Evidence that root cause analysis of exception reports relating to fire detection equipment is conducted at least monthly and is used to inform

improvement actions.