Contents

Enabling Information: A report on improving access and raising standards in information services for disabled people and their carers in Scotland.

3 Standards And Accreditation

It is clear both from the Scottish Office survey, and from responses to the Working Group's statement, that there is a perceived need for widely accepted national standards as a benchmark both for information providers to assess their own service and to plan for improvement and training, and for use by funders, both local and central government.

3.1 Can all agencies be expected to meet the same standards?

The agencies involved differ widely in their staffing and funding arrangements, in who their clients are, and in their philosophy, but more significantly in whether or not they are primarily information and advice providers. In the case of social workers, health professionals or housing officials, and also in the case of commercial companies, the provision of information may well be seen as secondary to service provision, despite the statutory duty imposed on local authorities.

In relation to this latter category the Working Group would like to make particular recommendations about the way in which information provision is regarded, and the extent to which information training can be included in professional training. Nonetheless even where information is given as an adjunct to service provision, consumers have a right to expect the information to be accurate, current and appropriate to their needs.

Despite the variety of agencies involved, standards should be drawn up in such a way as to be relevant to all information providers. In the field of housing information and advice, draft national standards have recently been drawn up and broadly welcomed by the statutory and voluntary sectors. (35)

Similarly despite the wide range of disabilities, the Working Group believes that the standards should be expressed in such a way that it is unnecessary to have different or extra standards for particular disabilities. The particular needs of people with learning disabilities or with mental health problems should be incorporated in common standards. If a standard can be stated, for example that an information or advice giver should ensure that the client has understood the advice or information given, this will require the advice giver to take the steps necessary to ensure that the client has indeed understood the information and advice given, and that the client is then in a position to act on that advice. If the client is clearly unable to act on advice without help or advocacy, then it will be important that the referral procedures of that agency ensure that the client is passed on to someone better able to take his or her case forward. Very similar considerations apply to people from ethnic minority groups.

The Working Group recognises that not all agencies provide the same type of service, and that there is clearly a need for a variety of levels of information and advice. Libraries have an important role to play in improving information services, but cannot offer advice. Grampian Caredata which provides a computerised database of health and community care information for the whole of Grampian, describes itself as a signposting service. In terms of quality standards, what is important is that the level of service provided by any particular agency is defined and made clear to users of that service.

The Working Group believes that it is desirable that any national standards apply to national bodies, as much as to local groups, and that it is essential that national bodies define quite explicitly what information service they aim to provide and who they are providing it to. This point was made by PSI in its report on the work done with national providers.(36) National providers have a wide range of users, including disabled people, professionals and local information services, and to ensure that a national provider is meeting the needs of its users it is necessary to define the service which it aims to provide to these various client groups and to have methods for finding out whether it is meeting the needs of those groups.

3.2 Content of Standards

3.2.1 Agencies in the voluntary sector are increasingly recognising the need to work to standards: in some cases this may be a condition of receiving funding, or of being contracted to provide a service in a particular field. Quality systems such as BS 5750, the Scottish Quality Management System and Investors in People are increasingly being used in the voluntary sector.

BS 5750 has been called into question on the grounds (a) of its cumbersome technique and (b) that it is less relevant to services which have no tangible measurable output. The NDIP project team did not consider it worthwhile to use BS 5750 as the basis for a national quality framework, but worked towards ensuring that local projects set realistic objectives for themselves and monitored whether they were achieving those objectives.

In its work with national providers, NDIP produced practical suggestions on ways of improving and monitoring the quality of their services. The conclusion was that while it was difficult to define and measure quality, it was possible to evolve a three stage strategy requiring providers to:

• establish the needs of their users;
• identify the components of a good quality service; and
• take steps to implement improvements.

3.2.2 Because of the wide range of type of organisation providing information to people with disabilities, the resources available to meet standards may vary considerably. Nonetheless the Working Group believes that the same standards must apply to all agencies. Disabled people and their carers are entitled to good quality, up to date information and advice, appropriate to their needs and in a form which they can understand, whatever the type of organisation providing the information. National standards will provide a tool for the assessment of services, and provide goals towards which services can work. The failure to meet standards could result in the removal of funding whether from local or central government. The Working Group feels that it is important that the standards are framed in such a way as to be relevant to, and achievable by all types of agency.

3.2.3 Following on from this, and looking at the various parts of the disability information continuum, it is equally important that all the players in the game, whether they be libraries, CABx or social work departments, should be fully aware of the services provided by other players, and have systems of referring people to the most appropriate source of advice or information for their particular needs. Effective referral should not be dependent on the particular knowledge of the first point of contact but should be the subject of clear guidelines. Referral should not be confused with signposting: referral implies that the person referring knows the best source of advice in a particular area and has a procedure for following through that referral, whereas signposting indicates a possible source of advice.

3.2.4 The Working Group is aware that quality standards have already been developed for use in the information and advice field, and that many agencies already work towards standards. The CAB service in Scotland has its own standards, while the library service works towards library standards drawn up by COSLA. In the housing information and advice field national standards have recently been drawn up by research consultants for HomePoint. The Federation of Independent Advice Centres requires a degree of community involvement and a commitment to equal opportunities, while DIAL UK requires that a majority of board members are disabled people. In addition service providers such as the Benefits Agency have quality frameworks leading to quality awards, often using self assessment procedures.

While recognising that some agencies are already working towards standards, the Working Group has tried to agree on standards which would be useful for agencies which do not already use standards, and could be used to add to or clarify existing standards, for instance by adding further detail about how access can be improved by providing information in appropriate formats or languages.

3.2.5 The Working Group has not tried to devise standards from scratch, but bases its suggestions on the following:

• Improving the provision of national disability information, a report by Nick Moore, Jane Steele and Caroline Boswell of PSI on their work with national information providers as part of NDIP. Part 3 discusses quality and the components of a good quality service.
• The national standards for housing information and advice drawn up for HomePoint, the housing information and advice network established under the auspices of Scottish Homes.
• The ten suggested principles for the development of information initiatives produced by the National Information Forum.
• NCC,s Good Advice for All, guidelines on standards for local advice services.

To provide a high quality service an information provider must take account of

• the service offered;
• the management of the service;
• the information itself; and
• training support and staffing issues.

An outline of the proposals from the sub group which considered quality standards and which should be taken into consideration in the drafting of national standards are contained in Appendix 8.

3.3 Use and enforcement of standards and accreditation

The Working Group is concerned that it should be clear what the standards would be used for, and in particular whether some form of accreditation would be used.

3.3.1 Financial incentives

It may be possible to create financial incentives to meet standards or at least to show evidence of a commitment to working towards standards. There are two possibilities:

• Funding by local or central government is made dependent on meeting standards.
• l A commitment to working towards standards may be required in order to gain access to other services such as cheap indemnity insurance or access to relatively inexpensive but good quality information resources (eg DIAL UK).
• 3.3.2 Accreditation

The Working Group considered the work done by Scottish Homes in this area. Following Scottish Homes' evaluation of the quality and availability of housing information and advice, an advisory committee was set up to advise the Chief Executive of Scottish Homes on various matters including the development of standards for the provision of housing information and advice and the development of an accreditation system. A report on accreditation systems was commissioned from Peter Gibson Associates. This report described existing forms of accreditation and made recommendations about the type of scheme Scottish Homes should adopt.

Various points were made in the report which would be equally relevant in the field of disability information:

• ic recognition of accreditation takes a very long time to become established.
• In a "quasi market" it is the funder rather than the end user of a service who is interested in whether the service meets the standards.
• It may be beneficial to staff to be working towards the achievement of an award which recognises the value of the work they are doing.

At the conference held in November 1994 to discuss the draft national standards for housing information and advice, while the standards were almost universally welcomed by both voluntary and statutory sectors, any early move towards an accreditation system was resisted. The Working Group thinks that this is also likely to be the case in the field of disability information. It is important that standards are allowed to evolve and develop before any more formal accreditation is introduced. All groups should be encouraged to use the national standards as a set of goals which they should be moving towards, even if they might feel daunted at the prospect of having to meet them all, or do not have the resources to meet them.

3.3.3 Advisory body

The Working Group believes that the development and encouragement of the adoption of national standards should be overseen by an advisory body including disabled people, carers, and their representatives, as well as other people with relevant expertise. This advisory body would be responsible for modifying the housing information and advice standards so as to make them more applicable to information and advice services for people with disabilities, taking account of the points made in this report. These standards should be used as the basis for funding decisions by central and local government, and once they have become established and accepted could form the basis of an accreditation system, although the Working Group does not advise this in the short term.

The monitoring of the use of standards could be undertaken either:

• on a periodic basis, by a contracted third party; or
• on an ongoing basis, at local level, by local authority inspection units contracted to do this work, or some other agent appointed by the local authority strategy group.

The Working Group does not rule out the possibility that some form of accreditation would be acceptable at a later date once the standards have had time to become established.

The Working Group also recognises that it is in the nature of the disability field that local self-help groups will spring up to meet particular needs and it may not be appropriate to expect such groups to seek accreditation.

3.4 Development of SVQS in advice and counselling

While accreditation would relate to an agency as a whole, a parallel development is the work which is going on to devise appropriate Scottish Vocational Qualifications in two fields: Advice, Guidance and Counselling, and Library and Information Services. In both cases a lead body has drawn up draft standards which are currently being piloted and will be finalised by summer or autumn 1995. It may be that the lead bodies will become Industry Training Organisations. SVQs are certificates awarded for competence in the workplace.

These will undoubtedly have a role to play:

• in helping to identify staff training needs;
• in recognising staff achievements;
• in selecting staff;
• in demonstrating a commitment to quality;
• as an indication to funders about the qualification of staff; and
• in applying both to paid and unpaid workers.