CHS Service Excellence Standards
Guide 2 – For people who use the Service
CORNWALL COLLEGE GROUP
CHS Service Excellence Standards
A guide for people who use the service
This document has been written to explain about, and help
you understand the Service Excellence Standards for Support
Services, what they are for, and what they mean to you.
We will outline the steps organisations need to take to
become accredited by the Service Excellence Standards
stamp of approval and how you will benefit as a customer if
they do this.
Aims of the Service
Excellence Standards
The Service Excellence Standards have been specifically
designed to improve standards and to check those standards
are being followed. We do this by:
n Setting clear standards for support services.
n Only accrediting organisations who deliver good quality, consistent and professional services.
n Encouraging staff to work and behave professionally and Section One explains what the Service Excellence Standards take responsibility for what they do.
n Providing a benchmark against which others can compare mean for everyone who uses them.
Section Two is for you to read if you’re interested in their services so that they can continually improve becoming more involved in your organisation’s what they do.
preparation to become accredited by the Service Excellence Standards.
The benefits of the Service
The information is split into
two sections:
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This is number 2 in a series of brochures giving all the
relevant information about the Service Excellence Standards.
The others are:
1 Introducing the Service Excellence Standards - for organisations, staff and managers.
3 A Guide for Commissioners, Local Authorities, Elected Members and Communities.
4 The Assessment and Verification process.
All these guides are free and available as downloadable PDF
documents from the Service Excellence Standards section of
the CHS website www.chs.ac.uk.
You can also request printed copies by contacting the CHS
Standards team. Contact details can be found on the back cover.
Section One
Excellence Standards
There are a number of benefits the Service Excellence
Standards bring for people who use them:
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The chance to give you a real voice in shaping the services you receive.
They provide a place for you to feed back your views and experiences of your organisation’s services, helping to improve quality and effectiveness. This in turn, can lead to them achieving an independent quality award.
Reassurance - knowing the services you get are in line with national standards.
Reassurance that staff are well trained and supported to deliver effective services.
A choice of support providers who have achieved the Service Excellence Standards that you know will provide a good standard of service.
What are the Service
Excellence Standards?
The Standards are:
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A ‘kitemark’ or ‘stamp of approval’ given by experienced experts outside the organisation who judge the service against others providing a similar service. Organisations cannot buy the Service Excellence Standards, they must earn it.
n A quality standard for organisations giving support to a variety of people using different types of services.
n A set of standards linked to modern support practices,
the expectations of the government and other regulators and examples of how the very best organisations provide support.
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The CHS Service Excellence Standards
A guide for people who use the service
How do the Service Excellence Standards work?
A service provider registers with the Centre for Housing and Support to become accredited by the
CHS Service Excellence Standards.
The Centre for Housing and Support agrees with the service provider which standards they wish
to be judged against and arranges an assessor to help with collecting the evidence.
The service provider has the option to ask staff and people who use the service to join a working
group to prepare the evidence.
The assessor visits the service provider to talk about the Service Excellence Standards and explain
what they have to do.
The service provider collects documents, videos, voice recordings, photographs, real life examples
and other evidence to show how well they deliver the service, and they upload the evidence to
the internet.
The Centre for Housing and Support arranges for an assessor to read all the evidence, talk to the
staff and service users.
The assessor closely examines all the evidence and visits the service provider to meet the staff and
customers of the service.
The assessor decides if the service provider meets the standards required for accreditation by the
Service Excellence Standards.
When the service provider is awarded accreditation by the CHS Service Excellence Standards, they
can proudly advertise and promote their accreditation to all and display certificates and plaques
at their various housing schemes.
Their name is added to the list of SES accredited service providers on the CHS website, so
customers and potential residents can check the validity of their achievement.
The CHS Service Excellence Standards
A guide for people who use the service
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CHS Service Excellence Standards
A guide for people who use the service
What are the Standards and what do
they mean?
Core Standards
All organisations must be assessed against the seven Core
Standards:
n Principles and Governance: how your provider manages the service in the best way possible.
n Equal, respectful: how the provider makes sure that you are treated with equality and respect.
n Effective and personalised: how the organisation tailors services to meet your individual needs and wants in a way that puts you in the driving seat.
n Respected and involved: how the organisation makes sure that you can participate in decision making about the service however, and whenever you wish.
n Complimentary and coordinated services: how each service works with other agencies to make sure that it meets your needs without unnecessary duplication.
n Value for money/Effective use of resources: how the provider makes sure that you are receiving good value
for money.
n Safe Customers: how the organisation keeps you safe from abuse, whilst encouraging you to take sensible risks.
Service Standards
In addition to the Core standards, the Service Standards are
for those services which provide more specialist support.
They are completely flexible, so that services are judged on
what they actually offer.
Each “stream” represents a different type of support offered:
n Family Support: help for families in need and may include assistance with parenting skills, and special help for young parents.
n Resource Support: help with benefits, pensions, preparing for work and budgeting.
n Cognitive Support: help for people with learning disabilities and mental ill-health, including dementia.
n Physical Support: help for people who have disabilities or who need personal care or special equipment to help them live independently.
n Social Inclusion Support: helping individuals to fit in with mainstream society.
n Substance Support: specialist support for people who misuse drugs and alcohol.
n Safety Support: help for people needing support to stay safe, such as women escaping domestic abuse, very young adults needing to be kept safe until they are ready for independence, or some older people who feel unsafe.
Why you need to get involved
The most important evidence that your service provider can
submit to CHS comes from you. In order to achieve the highest
achievement levels, providers must film or record people like
you, talking about your experiences as their customer.
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Do you have a particularly helpful member of staff or team that you want to talk about?
What do you know about your provider’s policies and procedures? Tell us!
Does your provider arrange social or other activities that you have really enjoyed? Tell us all about it.
How has your service provider made a difference to your life? Have they helped you to overcome some real challenges? Have they helped you to get a job, a new home, or to get into college?
If you are a mum or dad, have they helped you to manage your children?
If you needed somewhere safe to live, did they sort it out for you?
We need to hear from you, so please help your provider to
record everyday activities or work that goes into giving you a
good service.
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The CHS Service Excellence Standards
The
A guide
Accreditation
for peopleProcess
who use the service
Section Two
By taking part in the assessment process
Getting Involved
n Meet the assessor and tell them about the services you get when they visit the scheme/service.
n Give feedback about the service by completing a short survey from CHS (this will be completely confidential).
n Agree to take part in telephone discussions with the assessor.
There are a number of ways you can do this, you can:
What you put in is essential to the Service Excellence
Standards: every organisation who wants to achieve
accreditation by the Standards must involve people who use
their services to prepare for the assessment.
Put simply, there are lots of ways that you can get involved –
and at a level that suits you.
As a member of the working group
One way you can get involved with the Standards is by being
part of the working group, if your organisation decides to set
one up to prepare for accreditation.
As part of this group you will:
n Meet regularly, both together and with the assessor.
n Help to collect evidence for the standards.
n Help tell people about the Standards.
n Talk to other service users, and their families, friends and neighbours about the Standards and the work that’s being done to prepare for the assessment.
n Choose the best evidence to prove the organisation meets the standard needed.
Some of the ways that working groups can tell others about
the Service Excellence Standards include:
n Putting on a road show and take it to as many services
as possible.
n A regular newsletter, edited by people who use the services.
n An article in magazines for people who use the services.
n The organisation’s website.
All information will be treated as confidential – the assessor
and CHS will not share any of your comments with the
organisation. Any comments you make will be used to give
general feedback, and will help the assessor make his or her
decision about awarding the Service Excellence Standards.
Your input is essential; we want to be sure that these services
really do what they set out to do – and the best way to do
this is to ask the experts. And that’s you!
Help and Support
If you have any questions after reading this brochure, please
get in touch with the Service Excellence Standards team.
The number to call is 01905 727272 or email
[email protected]. We are always here to help.
“We had a big input and felt part of the team. It was
quite a challenge but very interesting. We helped
check the portfolios and pick out the best examples to
support the Service Excellence Standards. I’m looking
forward to future meetings so that we can help make
the service even better.”
Jan Whitfield, Resident of New Progress
By producing evidence
You can give information to go in the portfolio too; there are
a number of ways you can do this:
n Give permission for the organisation to include evidence of the services you’ve had.
n Write a simple statement about the services that you receive and you’re involved with, how you’ve been helped by your scheme manager or support worker.
n Take part in audio recordings or even videos about what you do and the services you get.
n Give evidence of your achievements, certificates, pictures of your work – perhaps you’re the next Picasso or budding Wordsworth!
n If you’re a member of any clubs or societies, this, too, can be used as evidence.
The CHS Service Excellence Standards
A guide for people who use the service
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