NICE have been asked by the Department for Education and the Department of Health to pilot the development of a quality standard for social care on the health and wellbeing of looked after children and young people for use in England. The consultation period has now closed.

Further information about existing stakeholders and stakeholder registration process can be found below:

• List of registered stakeholders
• Stakeholder registration
• Information on the progress for this quality standard topic

Consultation dates: 16 August to 16 October 2012

Consultation documents

• Looked after-children and young people draft quality standard

Please note that this quality standard is provisional and may change after consultation with stakeholders and field testing.

General questions to consider in the consultation

• How will this quality standard improve the quality of care provided?
• What important areas of care or services, if any, are not covered by this quality standard?
• How useful are each of the proposed quality statements?
• Which are the most important quality statements and why?
• Are any of the proposed quality statements inappropriate and if so why?
• How measurable are each of the proposed quality statements - how easy will it be to collect data for each statement?
• Are any of the proposed quality measures inappropriate and, if so why, and can you identify suitable alternatives?
• Are there any additional quality measures that should be included?

Specific questions on this pilot quality standard for social care

• For draft quality statement 1: Services need to work collaboratively to provide quality services to looked-after children and young people. Is it important to have a separate statement on collaborative working to meet the needs of the child or young person or should this be threaded throughout other statements as an overarching theme?

Background documents

The following supporting documents were used in formulating the draft quality standard. These are working documents which are provided as background information only and are not for consultation.

• Looked-after children and young people final scope
• Looked-after children and young people briefing paper
• Promoting the quality of life of looked-after children and young people. NICE public health guidance 28/SCIE guide 40 (2010)
• Looked-after children and young people SCQS: equality analysis - draft QS
• Minutes of looked-after children and young people Topic Expert Group meeting 1
• Minutes of looked-after children and young people Topic Expert Group Meeting 2 (to follow)

Endorsing NICE Quality Standards

NICE is proud to jointly badge quality standards to help to achieve maximum dissemination among relevant audiences. If your organisation is interested in endorsing this quality standard please email socialcarelac@nice.org.uk to express an interest.

Those who endorse quality standards must be:

• National service user, patient, carer, voluntary, charity and non-governmental organisations that are run by, or directly reflect the perspectives of people who use services, carers or client groups, and represent the interests of people whose care is covered by the quality standard in England.
• National organisations that represent the professionals who provide the care or services described in the quality standard in England.
• National organisations that represent providers of care or services described in the quality standard in England.
• Statutory organisations (an organisation set up by government for a specific purpose) including Ofsted, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and Local Government Improvement and Development.

Email enquiries

If you have any queries please email qualitystandards@nice.org.uk.