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How do we know we ’ re doing a good job ?
Are thank you cards and chocolates a way of measuring a service ? This was a question the occupational therapists within a newly formed Home Improvement Agency were asking , as part of a project to measure their impact . Hilary Smart explains .
A re we doing a good job ? How would we know ? As a newly formed , in-house Home Improvement Agency ( HIA ), these were questions we were asking ourselves . Prior to the occupational therapists joining the HIA , the team used a customer satisfaction survey , which solely focused on the Disabled Facilities Grant ( DFG ) process and the standard of work from the contactor .
Apart from the occasional ‘ thank you ’ card , we had no evidence of the impact the adaptations had on service users ’ lives , independence and wellbeing , or how we were performing as a team .
The HIA manager asked the occupational therapists to find a way of evidencing and recording these changes to quality of life , so that the positive outcomes of our work could be demonstrated to councillors and a wider audience .
What did we do ?
Taking into consideration the recommendations in the report Disabled
38 OTnews July 2023