Implement systems to monitor and review accuracy and reliability of information

For this assessment criterion, you will be required to evaluate a range of systems to ensure that information is captured, monitored and reviewed to meet legal and organisation requirements.

Whenever data is collected, it should be both accurate and reliable. Accuracy is how precise or true the data is and reliability refers to the trustworthiness or consistency of the sources. For example, if you distribute a questionnaire to a very small sample of people, the results will be heavily biased towards the views of those individuals. It is only by using a larger sample size that you will get a more complete and reliable understanding of the views across the whole population.

To ensure that information capture and processing meet legal requirements, you should be familiar with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) as well as Care Quality Commission regulations. Confidentiality should also be respected at all times and systems should be designed to ensure that only those with correct authorisation are able to access sensitive or private information.

Internal quality assurance systems can be used to monitor the collection of information to ensure that is reliable and accurate. For example, a review of digital communication systems may identify that some members of staff are recording information in the wrong place, which leads to monthly reports being inaccurate because they do not contain complete data. By locating this error, staff can receive additional training or policies/procedures can be revised to ensure that all future data is recorded correctly going forward and increasing the accuracy of the monthly reports.