DHSC asks councils and care providers to check if their TEC suppliers and service providers are QSF-certified

1​9 May 2023

The Department for Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) newly published framework to support good digital working in adult social care has recommended that local authorities and care providers ask organisations that supply them with TEC products and services if they have signed up to the Quality Standards Framework (QSF).

DHSC’s What Good Looks Like (WGLL) framework, co-developed with the adult social care sector, Local Government Association and Association for Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), provides a collective set of goals for digital leads, directors of adult social services, commissioners and service managers to work towards as they take steps towards digitisation.

Under Success Measure 6, which focuses on how to improve care, the framework states, 'when seeking evidence of quality, safety, innovation and continuous improvement, ask organisations providing TEC products and services if they have signed up to the Quality Standards Framework, a scheme run by TEC Quality (a subsidiary of the TEC Services Association) and the only United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), one for TEC in the UK'.

This recognition of QSF and the assurance it provides, follows the work Alyson Scurfield, CEO of TSA has been doing with the Digital Social Care Advisory Group (DSCAG), the DHSC Transformation Team and NHS England on their wider collection of What Good Looks Like guidance to support health and social care leaders with digital transformation.

It also chimes with endorsement of QSF from NHS CEO Amanda Pritchard in 2022 when she urged Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to commission QSF-certified TEC Responders to work with Urgent Community Response (UCR) teams to ease winter pressures.

Both Amanda Pritchard and DHSC’s What Good Looks Like (WGLL) framework highlighted QSF’s UKAS accreditation – showing the high quality of its certification process.

Alyson Scurfield, CEO of TSA said: “There is very clear messaging in DHSC’s new guidance for social care commissioners. It directly recommends they seek proof of the quality of their TEC suppliers and service providers by checking if they are QSF-certified. Signing up to QSF gives commissioners confidence in an organisation’s products and services but it also instils confidence internally. Receiving external validation is a huge milestone for a TEC organisation. It’s hard proof of the skill, competency and quality of their staff, services and solutions.”

Sir David Pearson, chair of TEC Quality said: “Technology enabled care can support individuals and their families proactively, helping to address their needs and aspirations. But this will only happen safely and effectively if high standards and quality improvement are the bedrock of all services and products supplied by TEC organisations. DHSC’s What Good Looks Like (WGLL) framework recommends that social care commissioners check this bedrock by ensuring their TEC suppliers and service providers are QSF-certified.”

Find out how your organisation can become QSF-certified here or email admin@tecquality.org.uk.