Quality Assurance Officer

**About the Borough**

This special place in South West London between the capital and the country has been a Royal borough longer than anywhere else - it is where the first kings of England were crowned.

Today it is a vibrant and diverse borough, with a long history and strong cultural and community heritage. Kingston's riverside location, fantastic retail offer, historic market place and church, parks and gardens all make Kingston town centre the vibrant space it is, and each of our district town centres (Surbiton, New Malden, Tolworth and Chessington) have something unique to offer.

Situated in Zone 6, Kingston is among the best-connected town centres in London - with direct train links from Kingston and Surbiton stations to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and Tramlink.

Kingston's people are innovative and entrepreneurial, and have a strong sense of community pride. The borough has been home to great industry and creativity for many years, reflected in assets such as the Rose Theatre, the International Youth Arts Festival and Kingston University, which boasts more new graduate business start-ups than any other.

We have seen tremendous generosity and compassion within our communities, particularly in response to COVID-19, which is a demonstration of Kingston's key strength. The council offers a strong level of support to vulnerable groups and those who need additional support, which has also increased significantly as a result of the pandemic. Like most places, the average age of our population is rising as more people are living longer, so we are working closely with residents to help them maintain their independence and further improve the cost effectiveness of our service to meet the ongoing rise in demand.

Kingston is home to people from diverse and interesting cultures and backgrounds, which helps to create the rich sense of community shared across the borough. In particular, Kingston has a large Sri Lankan Tamil community and is home to more people from Korea than any other part of the UK.

**About the Role**

We are looking for a values based Quality Assurance Officer to join our team.

The post is hybrid, and the successful applicant will be expected to travel into Kingston up to twice a week to conduct Quality Assurance visits to Adult Social Care providers, as well as to work in the office at the Guildhall Complex up to twice a month. The day to day work includes:
Conduct Quality Assurance visits to providers of home care, care homes, supported living, and other sites.

Support providers in resolving concerns about their service

Support providers through the Provider Concerns Process, if serious risks are identified.

Support the team manager in facilitating meetings with stakeholders and forums with providers to raise awareness and share experiences.**
**About you**

Essential qualifications, experience and skills we are looking for include:
Experience of working with providers of adult social care

Experience of working with local authorities and/or health providers

Experience of supporting adult safeguarding concerns,

Knowledge of relevant legislation, such as the Care Act 2014, Mental Capacity Act, Mental Health Act

Able to demonstrate the STAR values of RBK, and a person centred, non blame approach to resolving concerns.

Able to write reports and take minutes to a good standard

A team player

**About Us**

The Adult Social Care Commissioning, Market Management, Quality Assurance Team works with colleagues from the Commercial Team, Adults Safeguarding, our local Integrated Care Board, the Care Quality Commission, SWL local authorities and other stakeholders to ensure that people who use commissioned adult social care services are receiving good quality, person centred care. We focus on preventative work and information gathering, as well as reactive work to ensure that risks are addressed and monitored.

We have a small and close knit team who share our different backgrounds and experiences, to make the best of our combined skill set in supporting services to provide good, safe care. We respond to clients who use adult social care, their relatives, social workers and other professionals who raise concerns about providers directly to the Council, and we work with providers in a non-blame open and transparent way to address concerns and improve services. We also hold regular forums with providers to raise awareness and share experiences.

We work with the Provider Quality Assurance Framework, which is overseen by RBK's Care Governance Board, to ensure that there is good oversight over the level of risk that the market is holding, and to make collective evidence based decisions regarding how best to support providers to improve. Our principles include being proportionate and fair when responding and escalating concerns. We work closely with our safeguarding colleagues to make sure that their recommendations are