First UKAS Accreditation Of Independent Care Home Inspections Announced
The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has granted the UK’s first accreditation for private organisations that perform inspections of care homes to RDB Star Rating Ltd.
The UKAS voluntary accreditation scheme is for organisations that perform inspections of adult social care providers. The scheme’s main aim is to improve the standard of care. The Care Quality Commission is considering how it would be possible to take the result of UKAS accredited inspections into account as part of its monitoring of care homes.
UKAS assessed RDB Star Rating for competence, impartiality and performance against the international standard ISO/IEC 17020:2012 (Conformity assessment – Requirements for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection). RDB Star Rating is the first organisation to successfully gain accreditation for inspections of residential care homes.
On receiving its accreditation, Sue Brand Managing Director of RDB Star Rating said:
“RDB Star Rating was established in 1997 to develop an independent assessment system specifically for the Care Sector, to identify and promote ‘quality’ providers to the public and to drive up standards. Over the last two years we have been working closely with UKAS and are delighted to have achieved this award. We feel it will give great reassurance to both the public and quality providers.”
Professor Martin Green, Chief Executive of Care England, commented: “The RDB Star Rating has been at the forefront of measuring quality in residential care services for many years. The news that this excellent scheme has been accredited by UKAS, gives the general public, and care providers, an independently accredited view of quality. At a time when the quality of care services is constantly being scrutinised, and RDB Star Rating, is an independently accredited and universally acclaimed mark of quality.“
Paul Stennett, CEO of UKAS said: “Congratulations to all the staff at RDB Star Rating on becoming the first residential care home inspection organisation to achieve UKAS accreditation. This will help generate confidence in both the quality of the inspection services it provides, and the quality of care offered by the residential care homes it inspects.”
RDB Star Rating’s award follows successful implementation of a pilot programme that was first announced in 2013 and will continue until all the participants are assessed and a review of the outcome of the pilot is concluded. Other participants in the pilot scheme are Healthcare Management Solutions Ltd and CHKS, both of whom are on course to complete their assessments by UKAS later this year.
