Themes:

• Governance
• Legislation and policies
• Meeting standards and managing risks

Level 5 illustration:

Governance

The leadership of CLD at all levels, is strong and effective with a clear drive and vision for improvement. Leaders demonstrate strong and effective governance which is informed by regular high quality reporting. This enables leaders responsible for CLD to demonstrate impact and progress towards meeting the requirements of CLD regulations.  Stakeholders, including staff, volunteers and partners have a strong understanding of CLD priorities and plans. They make a valued contribution to informing priorities and co-producing in taking these forward. Community members are active participants in CLD planning and decision making processes. As leaders, we ensure duplication of effort is avoided and that shared resources are targeted well to meet priority needs.

Legislation and policies

Leaders at all levels plan well for changes to legislation, policies and guidance. Our policies and procedures are clear, appropriate and up-to-date. Leaders ensure all staff, volunteers and partners comply with their duties and responsibilities in respect of legislation, regulations, strategies, policies, guidance, standards and codes of practice. We respond quickly to and adjust our practice in line with new legislation, policies, strategies and changes effecting professional practice. All partners, staff and volunteers participate actively in regular training and development opportunities to support this. We are secure and confident in responding to safeguarding and child protection issues or concerns. Our record keeping is always appropriate, up to date, robust and secure.

Meeting service standards and managing risks

Leaders at all levels work effectively with staff, volunteers and partners to set out and raise service standards and to manage and mitigate risk. Our communication strategies are open, transparent and effective. We regularly and systematically undertake robust analysis of intelligence including demographic and performance data. This helps us to understand how well we are meeting standards and informs our identification of and response to risk. We have strong procedures in place to manage and minimise financial and other resource risks including staff changes. These processes ensure we can sustain our standards and best respond to and meet changing needs. Our practice is informed and governed by well understood CLD competencies, ethics and standards.

Challenge questions:

1. How do we know that our leadership at all levels is strong and effective?
2. How do we know that our governance of CLD is effective, efficient and robust?
3. How good are our quality assurance processes to enable us to monitor and report on our progress?
4. How well do our quality assurance processes help in identifying and planning for continuous improvement?
5. How clear are we of our responsibility to meet legislation, regulations, strategies, plans and codes of practice?
6. How well do we meet CLD Regulations, strategies, policies and guidance?
7. How equipped are we to respond well to changing policy or guidance? How well do we respond to and meet new and rapid societal or legislative changes?
8. How effective and well understood are we of our responsibilities for safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults?
9. How do we know we are meeting and raising standards of delivery to continue to secure improvement?
10. How successfully are risks identified, considered and managed?
11. How well do we take account of the risk in proposed changes in response to any new innovations which support improvement?
12. How well do stakeholders, including staff, volunteers and partners contribute to identifying and setting priorities and co-producing in taking these forward?