Consultation is open on the development of the proposed standards to be introduced by the newly-created Institute of Registered Case Managers (IRCM).
The standards come as the latest phase in the development of the IRCM, an organisation set up to help professionalise case management through new levels of regulation and accountability.
They have, say the IRCM, been carefully mapped against the quality standards of the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), and include minimum requirements around practice, ethics and professionalism.
The standards will help the IRCM – created jointly by the British Association of Brain Injury and Complex Case Management (BABICM), the Case Management Society of the UK (CMSUK) and the Vocational Rehabilitation Association (VRA) – in its efforts to advance the development of a register which will protect the public by promoting quality case management, and give new levels of endorsement of the abilities of case managers.
“For a register of case managers to be meaningful, it necessitates the development of a minimum standard and a means to measure the competence and behaviour of registrants,” said the IRCM.
“A significant proportion of current case managers and purchasers of services acknowledged that this is a critical point in the development of the register, and we are in the process of considering the entry requirements for registration which will be framed on these minimum standards.
“Already much time, effort and research of other similar registers has influenced the contents of this draft of the standards.”
The new proposed standards build further on the first version of the Case Management Framework, published in 2014 by BABICM, CMSUK and the VRA.
The Case Management Framework was designed to define the general skills and knowledge base that all case managers should possess in order to deliver high quality case management services to their rehabilitation clients.
This framework was designed to sit alongside the individual member groups’ own requirements for membership, and to be the first step in developing a structured approach to quality service delivery and the pathway to reach this.
The development of new standards by the IRCM will help take that longstanding document to the next level.
“We also recognise the importance of consulting stakeholders at this point, as we did when developing the Framework,” said the IRCM.
“This consultation is designed around the questionnaire below and we welcome your comments particularly in this regard as they relate to the technical standards.”
Responses are welcomed by 5pm on Tuesday, December 14 and can be submitted here
The draft standards are available to view here
