Leadership and management in Care Homes 

When CQC assess the leadership and management of an organisation they hope to see the provision of high-quality care addressing individuals’ needs,

whilst learning and innovation are encouraged in a clearly open and fair atmosphere. They look for cultures promoting compassion, dignity, independence,

respect, equality, well- being, and safety. Finally, they ask how leaders ensure these qualities are embedded into common practice and that all staff

understand and promote them.

 

HOW CARE QUALITY ECOSYSTEMS PROVIDES EVIDENCE FOR CQC INSPECTION

KLOE 1 – SAFE S1 S1.2 S1.3 S3.1 S3.2

We have engaged and embedded the innovative system (Care Quality Ecosystems’ ) into our administration processes. This system adds a more secure layer onto the existing vetting and barring process as it takes guesswork out of assessing carers – initially at recruitment and subsequently on an ongoing basis. People leaving due to churn provide us with regular opportunities to improve our CQE safety level (and, as evidenced by the data, we are doing both successfully and consistently). We now routinely engage applicants who safely enhance our safety stance. The CQE process colour codes staff into red orange and green and the rota system provided interactively illustrates the safety impact of the various staff permutations on shift safety. Rotas are thus easily modified – ensuring that the team we deploy are as safe as we can possibly make them.

 

KLOE 2 – EFFECTIVE E1 E2 E2.1 E4

The CQE system adds to traditional processes by measurably strengthening our culture – which it also monitors and reports on. The CQE cultural drive builds confidence and drives the individuals responsible to improve communication and best practice.

 

KLOE 3 – CARING C1 C1.1 C1.2 C1.4 C1.5 C1.6 C2 C3

Fluctuation in staff attitudes – unsuspected at the recruitment stage are exposed by CQE’s ongoing monthly surveys. These ensure that even if (for whatever reason) a carers’ attitude oscillates – as we now know they can – from time to time, we ensure team safety is maintained by adding more of the currently reliably caring carers to the team mix. We employ those who are rated by CQE as most likely to express kindness, offer respect, compassion and give emotional support. We have found that these staff are empathic with residents and thus instinctively encourage them to express their views. Both the residents and the staff are thus developing a caring culture – to the benefit of us all.

 

KLOE 4 – RESPONSIVE R1.6

The ecosystem the CQE system develops is easily maintained as the system cuts straight to the heart of what matters in delivering a safe and caring culture. The culture itself is a powerful attractor for staff whose very nature is to value people and respond to their needs.

 

KLOE 5 – WELL LED W1 W1.1 W1.2 W1.3 W1.6 W1.8 W1.10 W2 W4

Our strategy to deliver high quality care has been advanced with our adoption of the Care Quality Ecosystems as an admin tool. CQE helps select, monitor, record and govern our service with information that both delivers and maintains positive change. By acting upon the information provided by CQE’s monthly reports we don’t just deliver continuous quality improvement that protects service users, but simultaneously generate the objective evidence that facilitates its tracking, maintenance and planned improvement on an ongoing basis .