Information for providers and services

Quality Management - Bradford Quality Assessment Framework (BQAF)

The Commissioning Team for Adults and Community Services will ensure that existing provision remains fit for purpose and in line with strategic objectives. It's overall aim being to drive up service improvement to ensure that providers offer high quality standards and value for money, while meeting the tailored needs and satisfaction of service users.

What is the BQAF?

The BQAF combines the customer care standards of the Quality Assessment Framework with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) Essential Standards for all regulated services. This provides the basis of the single quality model which will be used to achieve a consistent quality mark for all Adult Social Care services within Bradford.

The purpose of the BQAF is:

• To provide service users and providers with one integrated quality framework for all adult social care services; 
• To provide a consistent approach to quality assurance; 
• To shift resources from quality control to quality improvement; 
• To actively promote the sharing of good practice between all stakeholders in order to improve the quality of services.

The aims of the Bradford Quality Assessment Framework are to ensure:

• Real influence for people who use services - both with ourselves as Commissioners and within each provider organisation; 
• Improved ability to measure the quality and results achieved by services, centred on the customer experience; 
• Enhanced partnership working with providers to improve quality, and share best practice; 
• Easily accessible information on the quality and types of services available.

The Adult Social Care Commissioning Team quality management processes aim to:

• Streamline quality control activities and increase emphasis on quality improvement and quality assurance activities: 
• Ensure best practice and lessons learned are captured and used to improve quality management processes; 
• Ensure that actions to improve quality are prioritised; 
• Emphasise working in partnership with service users, carers and providers; 
• Ensure that quality management data informs wider strategic commissioning and partnership activities.

The quality management processes incorporates a quality management cycle which encompasses:

• Quality Assurance: planned systematic actions to implement specific standards and actions outlined within the BQAF; 
• Quality Control: regular process of activity internal to the provider organisations to review quality, designed to ensure that standards and targets are achieved; 
• Quality Audits: systematic examination of the quality system external to the provider organisations, undertaken by the Commissioning Team in partnership with current and ex- service users and or carers; 
• Continuous Quality Improvement: identified through provider Quality Control activities, involving regular analysis of feedback and reflection on their service delivery processes; and findings from Quality Audits. These activities will involve amending processes and or policies and updating and improving systems to ensure that service delivery provides tailored services to meet service user needs.