How to use our quality standards
Our quality standards set out priority areas for quality improvement in health, public health and social care.
How they can be used
Quality standards support our guidelines by highlighting key areas to focus on. They can be used in the following areas:
Influencing commissioning
Our quality standards play a key role in helping commissioners and providers. They can:
support in identifying changes that need to be made in order to develop services
empower providers to ask for the specific support they need to improve service performance and quality
provide commissioners with key quality markers that they can include in service specifications.
Supporting quality improvement work
You can use quality standards to:
write improvement action plans
set goals
demonstrate the level at which a service should be provided.
The standards support the assessment of health and care services, identifying areas of good care and areas for quality improvement.
Helping with quality assurance work and monitoring
You can use quality standards to develop quality assurance frameworks. They allow users to:
identify gaps in services
benchmark compliance
measure quality improvement after implementing change.
The standards are useful for:
setting key performance indicators
monitoring performance
sharing with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to evidence good and outstanding care.
Shaping services and provider markets
Quality standards are helpful for:
setting the baseline that providers are expected to meet
underpinning policies and procedures.
Resources
Our service improvement template (Excel) can help you to:
assess current practice
develop an action plan
monitor quality improvement.
Our into practice guide contains practical steps you can take to improve the quality of care and services.