How they are developed
Making a difference to children
and young people using services:
We believe that it is important that
our standards reflect the issues which make a difference to the
experience of the person using the service. For this reason,
the standards follow a patient pathway through care and how the
service interfaces with other services. The standards have
been developed through consultation with young people and the
3rd edition has been revised in collaboration with
QNCC’s Young Person Advisors.
Meeting national requirements:
We recognise that services are under
increased pressure to demonstrate that they comply with national
policies and guidelines. For this reason our standards
incorporate requirements and recommendations set out
nationally. This means that the review cycle will enable your
service to demonstrate where it is currently meeting national
requirements and will support the service to meet them where
isn't.
The standards are aligned with national policy including
the following:
- The Department of Health’s No
Health Without Mental Health
- The Care Quality Commission’s
Essential Standards of Quality and Safety
- The Department of Health’s You’re
Welcome Quality Criteria
- The Welsh Assembly Government’s
Healthcare Standards for Wales
- A range of policy documents from the
Scottish Executive, including Getting it Right for Every
Child; Better Health, Better Care; and Delivering
a Healthy Future
- The revised Mental Health Act and Code
of Practice
- NICE guidance
Reflecting the views of those
in the field:
We know that those who are in the field
have the best understanding of the issues and challenges that they
face in providing high quality care. Our current set of
standards was revised following consultation with over 150 CAMH
professionals in member services, and review by the project team
and Standards Development Group.
Keeping up-to-date:
The first edition of the standards was
published in 2006, following a review of relevant literature and
extensive consultation with CAMH professionals, young people and
parents. In keeping with the cyclical process of the QNCC
network, the standards have been updated following their initial
two year implementation. We continue to review the standards
each year to ensure that they continue to reflect developments in
policy and practice and any issues identified through the review
cycle and by our members.
Standards
for services providing a crisis and/or intensive
response
As more CAMH services around the UK are
setting up services which work flexibly and intensively in the
community, members of the network are interested to establish what
constitutes good practice in such services, and how professionals
should be supported to deliver the best possible care and
intervention. By working closely with local community and inpatient
CAMHS and other local agencies, a CAMHS crisis response and/or
planned intensive intervention will help ensure those in need
access a timely response and intervention from the right
professional, in a way that will aid their path to recovery. The
additional standards and “core features” outline included in the
3rd edition of the standards are applicable to crisis
teams, intensive teams and CAMHS teams which provide a crisis
and/or intensive response as part of their core business.
Definitions
- Responding to a crisis: A crisis
response is when a young person presents with an urgent mental
health need that requires an immediate response from CAMHS that is
not part of a care plan.
- An intensive response is when a young
person requires an increased level of CAMHS input and contact that
is part of their planned care.
More information about the development
of the subset of standards for services providing a crisis and/or
intensive response can be found in this presentation by Anne
O'Herlihy:
What the standards cover
The standards emphasise the practice
and processes that are required to deliver a high quality CAMH
service. Part of the Quality Network’s focus is on the extent
to which these CAMHS work with other agencies and services to
facilitate multi-agency communication and co-operation. The
‘multi-agency’ aspect of the Quality Network relates to the
attention paid to these interfaces throughout the standards and
during the peer review visits.
The standards cover 10 domains, these are:
- Referral and access
- Assessment and care planning
- Care and intervention
- Information, consent and
confidentiality
- Rights and safeguarding
- Transfer of care
- Multi-agency working
- Staffing and training
- Location, environment and
facilities
- Commissioning
The complete set of standards is
aspirational; we do not expect services to meet every standard, and
services can still be accredited as excellent without meeting all
the standards.
Evaluation of a service’s quality should also take into account
indicators of activity and outcome, such as number of referrals,
waiting times and dropout rates. These indicators will be
collected annually as part of the self review in order to inform
local reports and enable national comparisons.
How we measure performance against the
standards
We recognise that services are diverse
and that high quality care might look different from one service to
another. Therefore, standards are categorised into three
types. This is designed to help members to prioritise areas
for action.
Type 1 (Essential): These are standards that are
critical to care. Failure to meet these standards would
result in a significant threat to patient safety, rights or dignity
and/or would breach the law.
Type 2 (Expected): These are standards that a
CAMHS team providing a good service would be expected to
meet.
Type 3 (Desirable):
These are standards that an excellent team should meet or standards
that are not the direct responsibility of the team.
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