Assuring Quality in Community Care

Following industrial experience in Japan the author presents a model to evaluate and monitor a community mental handicap service. It looks at outcome, structure and process standards for planning, action, audit and improvement in terms of the client, family, staff member, management, community, facility and comprehensive service. The report focuses on the Waikato Hospital Board′s plans to separate the purchase and provision of service using a trust and providing agencies. It concludes that a quality community service requires information be made available to clients and staff to enlarge their vision and enable the production of a life‐style plan from which training needs may be identified. The trust should facilitate staff rotation, inter and intra agency communication. The whole service requires evaluation by an external agency using a social audit. Underpinning all evaluation will be a common well publicised set of values.