Inspection support

Any organisation subject to inspection knows how much work is involved in preparing for an inspection, how much effort goes into getting it right - and the human and financial cost of putting things right after a negative inspection.

The purpose of Cordis Bright's inspection support service is two-fold:

• To help bring about overall improvement in services for the long term
• To help our clients perform better in the context of inspections

Cordis Bright has a highly experienced inspection support team. Our consultants include ex-inspectors from:

• Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI)
• Probation service
• Children's homes

We support our clients before, during and after inspections, from Joint Area Reviews (JARs) to inspections of Youth Offending Teams (YOTs).

What's involved in inspection support

Pre-inspection support

There is no single, standardised approach to pre-inspection work, but it could include:

• Analysis of the quality of services being delivered
• Help with producing self-assessments for inspections and reviews
• Project management
• Producing supporting data, e.g. performance comparisons with similar organisations

Post-inspection support

The underlying reasons for a negative inspection are often lack of priority, focus, resources, systems or skills. Cordis Bright places a strong emphasis on mentoring, role modelling and direct supervision. We work alongside current managers to improve performance on a day-to-day basis and skill levels in the longer term. This includes:

• Long term placement of our consultants with your management teams
• Hands-on coaching with managers' day-to-day work
• Guidance on immediate action to achieve rapid results
• Help to develop more effective working practices with partner agencies
• Training, e.g. in risk management
• All aspects of internal organisational development, with a view to long-term change as well as short-term results

Who inspection support is for

This service is for any organisation or partnership subject to inspections and reviews. Cordis Bright has developed particularly strong experience around Youth Offending Teams (YOTs), supporting all of the agencies involved (health, probation, police, education and social services) and working jointly with them in partnership.

Cordis Bright is experienced in, and can also provide support for:

• Joint Area Reviews (JARs)
• Performance assessment frameworks for social services departments
• Children's residential services
• Services for children and young people with challenging behaviour

Case study: inspection support for a YOT

Cordis Bright has recently been helping a London Borough to improve its services following a Youth Offending Team (YOT) review.

We were commissioned by the Chief Executive following an inspection and provide on-site support to the YOT four days a week on a long-term basis.

Our aim is to help our client to protect the public, prevent offending and reduce re-offending. By helping our client deliver service improvement we are also working towards a better follow-up inspection.

Our work has included:

• Developing measures to improve service delivery to young people, parents and victims
• Analysing the quality of work being delivered to these groups
• Providing support for the management team, from one to one coaching to group training
• Helping establish more effective partnership working
• Preparing Youth Justice plans, policies and strategies for the agencies involved in the YOT

We have helped our client to achieve a positive follow-up inspection, in which Her Majesty's Inspector of Prisons particularly noted the improved focus and performance of the management board.