Our Quality Policy

Community Housing - TECS is accredited to a number of recognised quality standards including:

Quality Standards Framework (QSF)

The Telecare Services Association (TSA) the industry body for technology enabled care (TEC) services awarded us Green/fully compliant status in all Standards and Service Delivery Modules of the Quality Standards Framework.

In the audit report, it was commented: "It is evident that this organisation is a listening and learning organisation, ambitious and brave, and actively deploying its vision to be a technological leader".

To attain accreditation, exceptional call handling performance is required with 97.5% of calls to be answered within 60 seconds.

International Standards Organisation (ISO) – ISO 9001

ISO 9001 is the international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system (QMS). Achievement of the standard demonstrates our ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements. It is independently assessed and all aspects of service delivery are examined from policies and procedures to the training and development of our teams.

We establish, implement and maintain a quality policy that:

1. is appropriate to the purpose and context of our organisation and supports its strategic direction;
2. provides a framework for setting quality objectives;
3. includes a commitment to satisfy applicable requirements;
4. includes a commitment to continual improvement of the quality management system.

Maintaining quality services that are accountable and consistent

Our high and consistent level of call performance is ensured by:

• Live reporting within the Monitoring & Response Centre using wallboard screens to display live call data
• Daily performance reports available to all key management personnel and actively accessed by Team Leaders
• Use of a Productivity Tool for comprehensive analysis of performance, resourcing and workforce data for our management team
• Planning for anticipated increases in call volume and responding with 'pool relief' Operator positions within the workforce to meet demand
• On-call support from Community Housing's Management Team and Monitoring & Response Centre Supervisors Team providing a timely and effective response to call volume spike
• Monthly quarterly and annual key performance indicators (KPI) to maintain internal performance management, TSA QSF accreditation, internal and external auditing and resource management.

We are proud of our commitment to customer service and this is evidenced through our customer charter, which sets out how we deliver exceptional customer service:

• We will be friendly, helpful and caring
• We will help people to be safe, healthy and independent
• We will be professional, polite and work as a team to provide brilliant customer service
• We will communicate in a timely manner and do what we say we will do
• We will listen to feedback and work with customers to continually improve
• We will tailor our services to support the individual, their families and carers
• We will embrace and utilise technology to support people and improve their lives
• We will maintain our records accurately, keep them securely and ensure confidentiality at all times.

Community Housing adopted the RESPECT values in 2021 and all employees agree to work to this framework as per the Code of Conduct.

Feedback

We request feedback from our service users and customers on a regular basis to monitor our performance and support our continuous improvement. Satisfaction levels are very high with an overall level of satisfaction of 99.14% (from April 2022 – March 2023).

Exceptional call handling quality

Monitoring of calls for quality is carried out by the Monitoring & Response Team Leaders.

A selection of 2 calls per operator are assessed each month using our Call Quality Assessment Tool. The operator also completes a self-assessment of a random call that they have handled. We assess a variety of call types and vary this across the year to monitor our performance in handling the range of scenarios which occur.

Call assessments are recorded for training purposes and are included in our My conversations (1-2-1) and annual appraisal processes. Any specific training requirements picked up through call assessment are fed into our TECs Training Matrix and highlighted at our team meetings as required.

Monitoring & Response Centre Productivity Tool

The productivity tool provides comprehensive analysis of performance, resourcing and workforce data for our management team.

The tool uses the following:

• Total call volumes
• Volumes per hour
• Volumes per hour per operator
• Hourly % of daily call volume
• Call duration
• Resource calculator based on volumes and productivity – traffic light system indicates call volumes per operator per hour with attached thresholds to indicate what response is required
• Projections Widget to input increased volumes and calculate required resourcing for higher levels.