Develop critical discussion on how managers and staff within health and social care are assisted by clinical governance, professional regulatory bodies and statutory bodies in maintaining quality within health and social care provision

Word length 2000 words
Learning outcomes.
1.Critically evaluate approaches to managing quality in health & social care settings.
2 Discuss the contribution of governance; professional, regulatory and statutory bodies to the assurance and enhancement of quality in health and social care settings.
3 Evaluate the contribution of the human resource in enhancing quality

Start with the introduction. Here you might discuss the aim of the essay and include learning outcomes. If you are going to concentrate on a specific area, this is where you would state this.
To start with in the main body- you might decide to define quality, clinical governance and regulatory bodies. You need to critique in the essay, meaning showing a deep understanding of the concepts. You might talk about trigger points in improving quality and the continuous improvement, who oversees quality and how etc.
You might discuss one or two models of quality improvement, and critique these i.e. Institute of Healthcare Improvement’s “Model for Improvement” – what are strengths and limitations of these (who has criticised these). You might wish to compare two different model. This might span over a couple of paragraphs
You may wish to discuss the role and function of regulatory bodies such as the The Care Quality Commission (CQC) . Consider how these bodies aim to ensure standards of care are met and how they do this. Consider how they seek views and experiences of service users and staff.
You may wish to consider and discuss Quality Surveillance Groups (QSGs), regulatory bodies overseen by the National Quality Board and consider how quality is managed as part of these groups. You might consider for example lines f communication , accountability different groups within such as QSGs include Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) . Consider the role of such groups, for example Health Education England- their role in regulation of the training and skills of staff; Healthwatch England – in their role as advocates for service users’ views. Consider how these agencies work together and why this is important..
You might consider how NHS trusts and/or local authorities manage quality. How is leadership vital in these organisations. How do staff work together and how do these agencies develop staff, gain feedback from users/carers/staff/ Who audits these agencies and how. What forums are in place for managing quality? What are the characteristics of outstanding services/inadequate services. How do organisational cultures operate. Are there examples of when things go wrong and what happens as a result of this. For example, Winterbourne view, what happened, how was this investigated and where there resultant changes in policy/legislation that sought to improve services.
You might consider values. What are the values of services, how do these impact on services delivery i.e. value based recruitment? How might these promote quality? What impact do these have for service users/carers? How do services manage equality and diversity? How does this manifest itself in person-centredness?
You will want to consider person-centredness throughout your essay, however, you might wish to consider this a a discussion point within a paragraph. What is important to service users? What might impact on this? How might the models of quality improvement impact on this? How do services meet quality in terms of service user needs? Are there any barriers to this? How do we know when there is a mismatch?
You might want to include staffing. In terms of staff- how are they supported? What are they accountable for e.g. safe practice, competent decisons etc. How do staff levels and skill mix impact on service quality? How is this managed? What measures are in place to support staff skills/knowledge e.g supervision, mentorship, appraisal etc. What might be the challenges here? How do services assess strengths and areas needing improvement at staff and service level? How might professional values, strengths and limitations impact on these? How might a management structure impact on staff for example do top down approaches to healthcare governance have a positive impact or not? How might systems of personal accountability ensure quality assurance (see Francis report, 2013, for example about this).
Conclusion- here you will bring the main themes from the essay to summarise your essay