Quality Assessment Framework (QAF)
The Quality Assessment Framework (QAF) is a tool which enables providers of services, and the council as the regulators of services, to understand how well the service is performing. It is a self-assessment process, whereby a provider responds to a list of requirements in detail to show how they are meeting them.
The QAF comprises seven core objectives and 11 supplementary objectives (within four broad sections).
Core objectives
- Needs and risk assessment
- Support planning
- Security, health and safety
- Protection from abuse
- Fair access, diversity and inclusion
- Complaints
- Child Protection
Supplementary objectives
Empowerment
- Informing service users
- Consulting and involving service users
- Empowering and supporting independence
- Participation in the wider community
Rights and responsibilities
- Privacy and confidentiality
- Rights and responsibilities
The service
- Service description
- Choice, sensitivity and responsiveness
- The living environment
Organisation and management
- Continuous improvement
- Staff recruitment, management and development
At the moment all providers must assess their services against the seven core objectives. Once services have reached level B providers are required to assess against the supplementary objectives as well.
Performance levels
Each objective can be assessed against four performance levels, A-D:
Level A: Shows excellence, leadership in the field, and mechanisms for continual improvement
Level B: Shows good practice, working toward excellence
Level C: Shows the minimum required standard with scope for improvement
Level D: Shows failure to reach the minimum required standard.
Where providers continue to show level D they must take immediate steps to make improvements and Supporting People team will work with them to ensure this is achieved. All new services must reach Level C as a minimum before they can start to provide a service.
There is an easier version of the QAF available for small providers with low value contracts. This is known as QAF Lite.
Checking progress
Every year providers must tell Supporting People team how they are doing. Therefore we ask for copies of their up-to-date self-assessment. We then spend some time looking at these in detail, and we decide who we will go and visit to check that the assessment is correct.
This process is called validation. As part of validation we may want to ask service users and stakeholders how they find the service, and whether the assessment that the provider has made is correct. As well as doing this, we spend some time summarising the grades from the self-assessments, and then we compare this with last year’s information.
We hope that the information shows providers are improving. This information is available in the 2005-2006 summary performance data. 
(PDF: 32KB)
From time to time the Supporting People team undertake service reviews. These will also involve a validation of the provider’s QAF self-assessment. If you would like more information on the QAF, or how quality of services is monitored, please contact us.