Standards
The Second Edition Standards for Community Learning Disability Services (PDF) were published in December 2021.
We believe that it is important our standards reflect the issues that make a difference to the experience of the person using the service. For this reason, the standards follow a pathway through care and include how the service communicates with people accessing the service, their carers and other agencies.
Since community mental health services differ widely in their configuration and the models used, these standards focus on the function of a team in order to make them as widely accessible as possible.
The standards cover six domains:
- Access and assessment
- Care planning and treatment
- Working with other services
- Experiences of people accessing the service
- Environment and facilities
- Staffing and Training
- Governance
How the standards are developed
The standards are developed in consultation with experts in the field and combine information from a variety of sources.
CCQI Core Standards
The standards must incorporate the College Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI) Core Standards. These are developed by our expert advisory groups, and have been refined in consultation with front-line staff, service users, carers, other interested groups such as national charities and professional bodies.
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.
The process enables your service to demonstrate where it is currently meeting national requirements and will support the service to meet them where it is not currently.
'Good Practice Principle'
We know that those who work in the field have the most comprehensive understanding of the issues and challenges that they face in providing high-quality care. For this reason, we consult with representatives from relevant disciplines to establish an expert consensus on what constitutes best quality care.
Research and other guidelines
We want our standards to reflect the most up to date published research and guidance on best practice. By incorporating these into our standards we hope that this will in turn help services to ensure they are continuing to maintain the highest level of care.