Press Release

Experts bring experience to social care inspections

21 December 2006

People who use social care services are helping the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) to change the way it inspects and provides information.

CSCI is using the expertise of these people to influence how we inspect, and how we write our inspection reports and other publications.

Frances Hasler, Head of User and Public Involvement, said:
“Working with people who use services has been vital to improving the way we inspect and provide public information.
“By involving people who use services directly in what we do, CSCI is able to get a richer picture of what matters when we carry out our inspections. We can make sure we are looking at the things that are going to make a real difference to people’s quality of life and supply information in formats that they need.”

Working in partnership with disabled people’s organisations and those representing people who use social care services, CSCI is running a series of projects that have helped us develop methods for involving people in inspections.  These include:

• Experts by experience - people who have experience of using services, who join some inspectors to help them get a good picture of the service from the viewpoint of the people who use it.
• Link residents - people living in care homes who help to distribute our user surveys, so we can get a good picture of the home between our visits. 
• Communication kits - picture based information about inspections, so inspectors can communicate with people more easily.
• ’Easy read’ report summaries - using images from Change Picture Bank so that people with learning difficulties can understand our reports more easily. (Change is a national organisation run by disabled people.)

One of our major ways of involving people who use care services is the experts by experience programme.  It was developed from pilot projects with two disabled people’s organisations. Sandwell People First and Darlington Association on Disability supported people with learning difficulties and people with sensory impairments to join inspections in care homes.  In Cramlington, CSCI has recruited a group of ‘experts by experience’ from three homes for older people.

Experts by experience contribute in a number of ways, mainly by talking to residents. One person with learning difficulties said: “thank you for sending someone who really understands me.”

They also observe interaction between staff and residents and report back good and bad practice. Experts by experience also take note of the environment of the home, and can help directly by sharing their knowledge. 

Providers have benefited from the involvement of experts by experience by using some suggestions to help their own quality monitoring and involving residents in more decision-making.  One provider said: “I found the expert to be polite and of use to me as I am a new manager in post.  He was able to provide feedback, both positive and negative, and from this information help me develop future plans.”

Key to CSCI’s approach is giving contracts to organisations, many of which are run by disabled people.
CSCI is working in partnership with these national and local disabled people’s organisations and voluntary groups to recruit, train and support the experts by experience. These include Help the Aged, MIND, self-advocacy organisations for people with learning difficulties - My Life My Choice, from Oxford, People First groups from Sandwell, Bristol and South Gloucestershire, and local disability organisations - Darlington Association on Disability and Barking and Dagenham Centre for Independent Living.

The National Centre for Independent Living, which is involving local groups from its network which are run by disabled people, said: “This is a new exciting project and has demonstrated the commitment by the Commission to involve people who use services in part of the inspection process, giving a service user perspective.” 

Barking & Dagenham Centre for Independent Living added: “Our involvement in this work has exceeded all of our expectations - it has given recognition and employment to people who use services and invested in us as a disabled people’s organisation.”

To help develop the partnership between CSCI and support organisations, the National Centre for Independent Living and Sandwell People First will organise regular get-togethers for the groups, and provide training and information.  Sandwell People First said: “It is very important for experts to pass on their knowledge, skills and expertise to other experts.  This then builds up a national bank of powerful experts by experience.”

Involving people with experience of using social care services has been a real benefit to CSCI inspectors.  One inspector commented: “From my point of view this was a really good inspection and experience.  The expert seemed to get on really well with residents and the new expert by experience with learning difficulties, who was shadowing, was lovely.  Not at all shy and spoke to both service users and staff with confidence.  This has to be the way forward for inspection.”

If you would like to find out more about becoming an expert by experience please contact the enquiries helpline on 0845 015 0120 or look on our website: www.csci.org.uk

Notes to Editors:
1.      To find out more about experts by experience please visit our website: www.csci.org.uk
2. The CSCI is the single inspectorate for social care in England, responsible for regulating and inspecting all social care providers - whether in the public or independent sector - and for assessing the performance of local councils in delivering their personal social services functions.

3. The Commission’s primary aim is to improve social care by putting the needs of people who use care services first.
4. The Commission is chaired by Dame Denise Platt DBE and has five Commissioners. The Chief Inspector is Paul Snell. CSCI staff work across nine regions in England - aligned with the government offices of the regions.