Quality and Safety of TEC Services Has Never Been More Important

The Department for Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) newly published framework to support good digital working in adult social care has recommended that local authorities and care providers ask organisations that supply them with TEC products and services if they have signed up to the Quality Standards Framework (QSF). DHSC’s What Good Looks Like (WGLL) framework, co-developed with the adult social care sector, Local Government Association and Association for Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), provides a collective set of goals for digital leads, directors of adult social services, commissioners and service managers to work towards as they take steps towards digitisation. Under Success Measure 6, which focuses on how to improve care, the framework states, 'when seeking evidence of quality, safety, innovation and continuous improvement, ask organisations providing TEC products and services if they have signed up to the Quality Standards Framework, a scheme run by TEC Quality (a subsidiary of the TEC Services Association) and the only United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), one for TEC in the UK'. This recognition of QSF and the assurance it provides, follows the work Alyson Scurfield, CEO of TSA has been doing with the Digital Social Care Advisory Group (DSCAG), the DHSC Transformation Team and NHS England on their wider collection of What Good Looks Like guidance to support health and social care leaders with digital transformation. It also chimes with endorsement of QSF from NHS CEO Amanda Pritchard in 2022 when she urged Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to commission QSF-certified TEC Responders to work with Urgent Community Response (UCR) teams to ease winter pressures. Both Amanda Pritchard and DHSC’s What Good Looks Like (WGLL) framework highlighted QSF’s UKAS accreditation – showing the high quality of its certification process. Alyson Scurfield, CEO of TSA said: “There is very clear messaging in DHSC’s new guidance for social care commissioners. It directly recommends they seek proof of the quality of their TEC suppliers and service providers by checking if they are QSF-certified. Signing up to QSF gives commissioners confidence in an organisation’s products and services but it also instils confidence internally. Receiving external validation is a huge milestone for a TEC organisation. It’s hard proof of the skill, competency and quality of their staff, services and solutions.” Sir David Pearson, chair of TEC Quality said: “Technology enabled care can support individuals and their families proactively, helping to address their needs and aspirations. But this will only happen safely and effectively if high standards and quality improvement are the bedrock of all services and products supplied by TEC organisations. DHSC’s What Good Looks Like (WGLL) framework recommends that social care commissioners check this bedrock by ensuring their TEC suppliers and service providers are QSF-certified.” Find out how your organisation can become QSF-certified by contacting us at admin@tecquality.org.uk .

Nigel Sparrow OBE, who worked with the chief inspector of general practice to implement the UK’s regulatory system for GPs, has been appointed as a non-executive director of TEC Quality, the body that runs the Quality Standards Framework (QSF). A GP himself for 30 years, Nigel was senior national GP advisor and responsible officer at the Care Quality Commission (CQC), England’s independent regulator of health and social care. During this time he was part of CQC’s senior leadership team, working on GP regulation and creating guidance and mythbusters about the inspection of GP services. Currently, Nigel Sparrow chairs the GP advisory board at Target Ovarian Cancer. He liaises with key stakeholders in primary care and has developed e-learning educational modules for GPs. Sir David Pearson, chair of TEC Quality said: “Nigel brings vast experience of the health system, specifically medical leadership, quality, standards, regulation and education. His knowledge will be invaluable in positioning QSF as critical to improving the quality of TEC in social care and healthcare.” Nigel Sparrow OBE, non-executive director of TEC Quality said: “Since Covid we’ve seen an explosion in the use of technology in healthcare and we need to make sure it is being used effectively. Everything I’ve done over the years has made sure that people receive the best possible care, and this will be my focus in TEC Quality too. I see a real opportunity to take TEC Quality’s expertise in standard-setting for social care technology and apply it to healthcare technology.”