Quality and safety

Our services

Kids is committed to delivering a consistently high level of service throughout our extensive and diverse range of provision. We do this by:

Working closely with families, young people and funders to fully understand their needs and meet their requirements,

• Complying with relevant statutory and regulatory requirements
• Ensuring our services meet national standards of good practice
• Achieving ‘good’ or better results in all external assessments
• Conducting our business in a way that reflects our core values
• Ensuring our people have the training and skills to support the delivery of high quality services
• Establishing systems and processes that enable us to measure and evidence what we do, and
• Promoting continuous improvement and knowledge sharing

Kids’ approach to quality is underpinned by a set of guiding principles:

Ensuring a person centred approach to the care and support of each individual

• Ensuring our activities and environments are safe, well maintained and fit for purpose
• Enabling the people we support to set customer standards and involving them in review and auditing processes
• Adopting outcome focused working and evidence based practices
• Deploying comprehensive policies, procedures and guidance which define standards and detail how these agreed levels of service are to be achieved
• Being open, transparent and trustworthy in all our dealings and communications both within Kids and in our external relationships

Health and Safety

Kids recognises that it has responsibilities for the health and safety of our workforce whilst at work and others who could be affected by our work activities. We will assess the hazards and risks faced by our workforce in the course of their work and take action to control those risks to an acceptable, tolerable level.

Safeguarding

Kids is committed to safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of all those who come into contact with our services. Our colleagues are trained to recognise and respond to safeguarding concerns. We work closely with families and other agencies to take all reasonable steps to minimise the risk of harm to children, young people and adults.

To fulfil our commitment to those we work with we observe safer recruitment and selection procedures and nurture a safeguarding culture which is open and transparent, where all concerns in relation to our people can be identified and spoken about openly and are dealt with promptly and appropriately. By identifying concerning, problematic or inappropriate behaviour early we aim to minimise the risk of abuse.

Safeguarding policies and procedures

Recruitment

Please see our recruitment policies below.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

Kids has written a statement of intent on equality, diversity and inclusion. This statement sets out our commitment to engage with and act on issues of equality, diversity and inclusion that affect the people we work with and our staff. You can read it below.

Disability Confident and Committed

Kids is a Disability Confident Committed Employer and we have committed to:

• Ensure our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible
• Communicate and promote vacancies
• Offer an interview to disabled people
• Anticipate and provide reasonable adjustments as require
• Support any existing employee who acquires a disability or long term health condition, enabling them to stay in work
• At least one activity that will make a difference for disabled people.

How we manage your data

• Privacy Notice for Children, Young People and Families using our services
• Privacy statement easy read
• HR Data Protection Policy

Inspection

Kids services are regularly monitored and evaluated by national regulatory bodies.

Ofsted

Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. It is the independent regulator of services that care for children and young people, and services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. Ofsted undertake regular monitoring and inspection of the following Kids services:

• Nursery education
• After school, weekend and holiday clubs
• Adventure Playgrounds
• Residential care and holiday schemes

Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. It makes sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality care.

CQC undertake regular monitoring and inspection of our services where we provide personal care and support within the home.

External Accreditation

Where appropriate we seek and attain external accreditation for the services we provide.

Civil Mediation Council

Kids is a member of the Civil Mediation Council which promotes the highest standards of skill, conduct and integrity in mediation.

Association of Child Protection Professionals

Kids is a member of the Association of Child Protection Professionals. The AoCPP is a multi-disciplinary association for child protection professionals focused on learning to support and improve practice and policy.

Standards and Codes of Practice

The range of standards and codes of practice Kids services comply with are:

• Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage
• Childcare Registration Regulations
• Fundamental Standards for Health and Social care
• Children’s Home Regulations and Standards (England)
• Residential Holiday Scheme for Disabled Children Regulations (England)
• SEND Information, Advice and Support Services Standards
• Civil Mediation Council Code of Practice
• National Portage Association Code of Practice
• Quality in Play Standards
• Skills Active Code of Practice

For information on a specific service’s quality standards, please feel free to contact your local service via the contact details on their web page. For more general information, contact our Assurance, Safeguarding and Safety team using the form at the foot of this page.

Fundraising

Kids is committed to good fundraising practice. We are registered with the Fundraising Regulator and are dedicated to following the Code of Fundraising Practice and the Fundraising Promise.