Derbyshire Healthcare spells out mandatory standards of care

Derbyshire Healthcare Foundation Trust has developed the standards for use across the whole trust with a dedicated website which went live on 2 April.

Each service in the trust has a page on the website - www.corecarestandards.co.uk - setting what they do and how the standards will be achieved.

The trust hopes the standards will align quality and safety of care delivery across the organisation whilst making it more open and transparent.

The standards were developed after a review of the trust’s care programme approach, which is used to identify care needs of people with mental illness.

The review was carried out after staff told the trust the system was too bureaucratic and they spent too long on paperwork while service users said they wanted more information in a simplified form.

Staff and service users were involved in drawing up the standards which cover assessment, care planning, review, coordination, discharge and transfer, families and carers, involvement and choice, and risk.

A set of principles also underpin the standards setting out how they will be achieved.

Kate Majid, head of patient experience and service delivery and lead for core care standards, said: “The development of the core care standards has been a huge, and necessary, piece of work which will enable our service receivers to get a real insight into the trust.

“The standards and principles of how we plan and deliver care are at the root of everything we do, and members of the public can now see exactly what our staff and services are working to.”

Training on the new standards has been carried out over recent months and will be discussed with patients during their care.

The trust took on specialist children’s services in April 2011 including health visiting, school nursing and continence services.