Promoting good governance in social welfare services
The Social Care Standards Authority is the regulator responsible for overseeing the good governance of social welfare services in Malta and Gozo, which includes services related to adoption, children in alternative care, substance abuse and other dependencies, generic residential services, disability, older persons, community services, and domestic violence.
The authority supervises all services across different sectors which are run by the government, NGOs, private entities, and church bodies.
One of the functions of the Social Care Standards Authority, in conjunction with the monitoring of social welfare services to ensure the consistent quality of the services provided, is the granting of licenses to service providers and their annual renewal. As established in The Social Care Standards Authority Act, every individual or entity which intends to provide a social welfare service needs to first apply and be granted a license by the authority to be allowed to operate and provide its services to the public.
Someone who is interested in operating a social welfare service is required to get in touch with the Licensing Office within the Social Care Standards Authority to kickstart the process by filling out the required applications and supplying the required documentation. Depending on the nature of the service to be provided, the appropriate Quality Tool is applied to ensure that all necessary elements of the service are checked and accounted for in accordance with the Social Regulatory Standards which oversee the service in question, which also form part of the functions of the authority.
Once all of the necessary documentation is received, the Inspectorate Office within the authority evaluates the service through the inspection visits performing the aforementioned Quality Tool. Should the tool uncover any shortcomings in the service, the provider is informed and instructed to provide the authority with an action plan with measurable timeframes to address such issues. Should the conditions be met, a License Certificate is issued to the service provider. This licence is valid for a year, after which the service will be re- evaluated, and the licence renewed.
Throughout the year, social welfare services are inspected on a regular basis, where visits can be both announced or unanticipated. During 2019, the Licensing Office issued a total of 219 licences and the Inspectorate Office conducted 998 visits to service providers.
The purpose of such visits can take one of three forms, one being the aforementioned licensing visit, where a social welfare service is assessed prior to it being a granted a licence; the second is the monitoring visit, which is scheduled on a regular basis to monitor the service; and lastly, the feedback visit, which occurs when the Quality Assurance Office within the authority is contacted by someone from the general public, a service user or a relative to provide feedback on a particular service. Whereas for the first two types of visits the inspection is scheduled, in this case an unannounced visit is carried out to investigate the feedback received accordingly.
This Licensing Office is also tasked with contacting service providers in the event that any irregularities originate during one of their monitoring or feedback visits. Consequently, a recommendation letter is issued to the service provider which includes a set of issues that the provider needs to address. The service providers are legally bound to follow such recommendations and instructions in order to ensure service quality and continuation in the operation of the licensed service. The authority continues to follow up in order to ensure that risks are mitigated and actions taken.
By licensing all social welfare services, the Social Care Standards Authority ensures that service users are guaranteed quality care with a perspective of value for money. Nevertheless, the authority reinforces its aim to work closely with service providers, service users and relatives through dialogue and collaboration to achieve social welfare services where quality matters.