Healthwatch Worcestershire Quality Policy

Healthwatch Worcestershire believes that those who use publicly funded health and social care services in Worcestershire and other stakeholders as our customers expect a continual improvement in the delivery of the services we provide:-

• Signposting – providing advice and information about access to local health and care services so choices can be made about local care services;
• Gathering the views of local people about health and care services, and using those views to influence the commissioning and provision of those services;
• Enabling local people to monitor the standard of provision of local health and care services;
• Providing Healthwatch England with the intelligence and insight it needs to enable it to perform effectively.

Therefore, as a company we are committed to continually improve those services to meet our customers’ requirements and to deliver services that we can justifiably be proud of. The company aims to achieve this by implementing a Quality Management System that complies with the requirements of the international standard ISO 9001:2015. It includes a commitment to meet the legal and regulatory requirements relating to the services we provide.

The Board of Directors are responsible for our Quality Management System and the Managing Director is accountable for achieving and maintaining ISO 9001:2015 certification. The Managing Director reports regularly to the Board at Management Reviews on the system’s implementation, maintenance and effectiveness.

All our employees and volunteers are responsible for the quality of their work. The company provides training and has established systems to assist all personnel to achieve the standards required. This includes communicating the Quality Management System to them.

The scope of our Quality Management System covers all the activities of Healthwatch Worcestershire and we have a continuing commitment to improving our Quality Management System and its effectiveness by:
• Establishing this Quality Policy and ‘SMART’ Quality Objectives to support the implementation, development and maintenance of our Quality Management System.
• Resourcing our Quality Management System.
• Reviewing the internal and external issues affecting our Quality Management System.
• Ensuring that our customer needs are determined and fulfilled with the aim of achieving customer satisfaction.
• Communicating throughout Healthwatch Worcestershire the importance of meeting customer needs and all relevant statutory and regulatory requirements.
• Undertaking Internal Audit as a means of monitoring and measuring the processes and the effectiveness of the Quality Management System.
• Ensuring that Management Reviews set and review our Quality Objectives.

Name: Jo Ringshall
Chair
Healthwatch Worcestershire

REVIEW BY: 12th December 2024