This Policy identifies issues of “non-compliance”; i.e. those that do not meet specified Quality System requirements at the Organisation. Policy No 2201 will then address how non-compliances may be anticipated and / or corrected through appropriate actions. This Policy is a requirement of clause 8.3 of ISO 9001:2008:

1. For Domiciliary Care Service Providers, the term “non-compliance” can be interpreted as those elements of the Care Service that do not conform to specified “requirements”.

2. These “requirements” can be those mandated by appropriate Care Standards and Regulations, or can be standards defined by the management of the Organisation. The following are some examples that would need to be addressed by the management of the Organisation, and do NOT represent an exhaustive list:

2.1 The Care Service - the Care Plan is “non-conforming”, or “non-complying”, when the service user does not respond to it perhaps as expected. In such cases the Care Plan must be re-evaluated, or perhaps even discontinued. It must always be remembered that it is NEVER the service user that is “non-complying” - always the Care Service.

2.2 Consumables - e.g. food at the service user’s home found to be past “sell by” dates, damaged food packaging; etc.

2.3 Medicines - out-dated, unwanted, or otherwise surplus to requirements, perhaps as a result of the discontinuation of a course of treatment.

2.4 Equipment - this may be “comfort” aspects which may detract from the service user’s quality of life (e.g. malfunctioning central heating system, wheelchairs with “square” wheels, etc), or Health & Safety aspects (e.g. faulty electrical appliances).

2.5 Waste Disposal - the disposal of badly soiled linen and other clinical waste, and “sharps”.

2.6 Service user illness - resulting from poor infection control within the service user’s home environment.

3. In all cases, tangible non-conforming items such as out-dated medicines will be properly identified as “not to be used”, and securely stored to await action and processing. Other aspects such as malfunctioning equipment will need to be reported to the Domiciliary Care Services Manager for appropriate action to be taken in consultation with the service user and / or advocate.

4. Preventive and / or corrective actions will proceed per Policy No 2201, with complete records maintained of all non-compliances and appropriate action taken.