Peer Reviews

This page contains guidance for HTAS peer reviewers, as well as information on how to become a peer reviewer.

As part of the accreditation process, each home treatment team receives a peer review from a team made up of clinicians from other member teams, as well as a service user and/or carer and a member of the HTAS team.

For more information on the accreditation process, visit our How accreditation works page.

Why become a peer reviewer?

Being a peer reviewer gives you the chance to visit other teams in the UK, and for home treatment team staff and clinicians this means becoming part of a network where you can share ideas and resources and giving you the opportunity to see how diverse other teams work. Staff and clinicians who have taken part in peer reviews for other accreditation schemes have said that they value the experience, particularly in preparation for their own peer review visit.
As part of the agreement of joining, member teams are required to nominate 2 staff to become peer reviewers. Bear in mind that your team will receive a visit from at least 2 clinician peer reviewers every 3 years, so you should provide at least 2 reviewers every 3 years in order to keep the programme running fairly and efficiently.
As a service user or a carer, you will become part of a programme which aims to improve the quality of crisis resolution and home treatment teams in the UK. We want to improve the experience of people like you who use these services and as part of that, your views are vital.

Who can become a peer reviewer?

People who work in a crisis resolution/home treatment team which is a member of HTAS.
People who have received care from a crisis resolution or home treatment team, or people with experience of caring for someone who has received treatment from a crisis resolution or home treatment team.

How do I become a peer reviewer?

You will need to be trained in peer reviewing. Dates of upcoming peer review training days are listed below. Contact your HTAS lead, your home treatment team or the HTAS Team to register your interest.

If there are no dates listed, we will take your details and contact you as soon as a new date is organised.

Thursday 13 June 2013, London

What does the training involve?

Training to become a peer reviewer takes one day and is free
The training day is structured like a peer review day and involves some role play (delivered by the HTAS team!) to give you an idea of how the peer review visit works, as well as guidance and group exercises.
Training days are eligible for your CPD programme.
For service users and carers, we will book or reimburse travel, as well as paying a session fee of £100/day for training.

When is your next training day?

Thursday 13 June 2013, London

To receive details about upcoming training days, please contact the HTAS team.

How can I find out where and when the visits are?

Once you are trained you are required to attend at least one peer review, however, you can choose which review(s) you would like to attend. We rely on volunteers and will not allocate people to reviews they don't want to attend.
We will send you an email with possible dates to choose from; usually these will be several months in advance.
Depending on distance, sometimes an overnight stay is necessary the night before a review.

What about expenses?

Professionals and clinicians

Professionals and clinicians should seek reimbursement for travel, accommodation and other expenses from their own organisation. HTAS will not pay expenses for professionals and clinicians.

Service users and carers

HTAS will pay a session fee of £100 per day to service users and carers who attend our reviews, as well as reimbursement of travel and subsistence (see below).

Travel and accommodation

The HTAS team reimburses all reasonable travel and expenses for service users and carers attending peer reviews, including meals and accommodation for overnight stays if these cannot be claimed elsewhere. You must retain all receipts/tickets to support your expense claim, including taxi journeys
We will book travel (trains etc.) and accommodation in advance on your behalf wherever possible. The College is part of the 10:10 campaign to reduce carbon emissions and as part of this we encourage you to travel by public transport as much as possible
If you would like us to book travel and/or accommodation for you, a member of the HTAS team should be notified at least 3 weeks in advance
If a ticket is bought by the reviewer on the day, we will only be able to refund the cost up to the price of an advance ticket
If you choose to drive, HTAS will refund petrol costs at 40p/mile up to the price of an advance train ticket

Reimbursement of alcohol

Please be advised that HATS will only reimburse you the cost of one alcoholic beverage per day whilst on review.

This is to be consumed with your dinner (for which you are permitted to claim a maximum of £25).

Any further alcoholic beverages will be purchased by yourself at your own discretion.

Information for service users and carers

For more detailed information for service users and carers about peer reviews, please click on the link below to download our 'Job Description':

Service User/Carer Job Description

Who attends a peer review visit?

Each peer review team is made up of two clinicians/staff members and a service user and/or carer, as well as a representative from the HTAS team.
The two clinicians/staff will be from different home treatment teams participating in HTAS. However, service users or carers may attend reviews with a staff member who they know from their own team.
The peer review team members must not be from within the same Trust as the team under review.

What happens on a peer review visit?

The purpose of a peer review is to validate the self review data - taken from questionnaires filled in by all kinds of people who have contact with the service. These data are put together in a peer review booklet which is easy to understand.
A review takes place from 11am - 5pm.
A series of meetings take place on a peer review day with staff from the host team
A scribe can be appointed to take notes in their peer review booklet in each meeting, or the team can share this responsibility.
Lunch and refreshments are provided by the hosts.
At the end of the day, the review team must decide whether each standard should be rated as Met or Not Met.

What does the lead reviewer do?

The lead reviewer is the head of the team and has a few extra responsibilities:

Getting in touch with the rest of the review team and the host team, before the review, to introduce themselves and offer to answer any queries. This is a good opportunity to exchange mobile phone numbers in case of an emergency or late running.
Welcoming the host team at the introductory meeting, explaining a bit about the scheme, the process and asking for introductions. Guidance on what to say is in the peer review guidance document you will have been supplied with.
The lead reviewer can choose to lead discussion about the peer review booklet during the meetings themselves, or share this responsibility.
At the end of the day, they collect in all the peer review booklets from the rest of the team, compile the comments into one booklet and return all the copies, including notes from the service user and carer meetings, to the HTAS team within 3 working days.
They can also send a courtesy email to the review team and host team after the review, to thank them again.
Remember that a member of the HTAS team is on hand to take over, or offer assistance or support if you need it.

Where next...

HTAS

4th Floor Standon House

Mansell Street

London

E1 8AA

Tel: 020 7977 4971 Fax: 020 7481 4831 Email: HTAS@cru.rcpsych.ac.uk

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