How to Achieve an Outstanding CQC Rating for Care Homes.

How to Achieve an Outstanding CQC Rating for Care Homes

There will be many social care CQC registered managers out there working towards what they believe will be an outstanding Care quality Commission (CQC) rating. As we all know aspiration is an excellent quality to have, but statistics show there have been only a small number of outstanding CQC ratings across the whole social care sector.

The lack of outstanding CQC ratings proves how difficult it is to move from aspiration to achievement. It would be helpful therefore for CQC registered managers to know what they need to do to achieve an outstanding CQC rating in their social care services, https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/how-we-do-our-job/ratings.

There is no doubt that achieving an outstanding CQC rating requires a comprehensive approach to care home management.

Herefordshire Care Homes owner and CEO Karen Rogers boasts the enviable record of having four out of her five care homes having outstanding CQC ratings. So, it may be useful to managers that Karen is willing to share her recipe for success, https://herefordshirecarehomes.com/.

Care home upgrades

Karen acquired her first care home in Herefordshire over twenty years ago. Since then she has developed the business through the purchase of four existing care homes. She found the care homes she bought to be functioning with some old-fashioned practices and institutionalized models of care.

Part of the transformation of the care homes to becoming outstanding services was upgrading them to provide a more welcoming and spacious environment. Karen added seventeen en-suite rooms to her first acquisition as well as remodelling the existing property, this expansion and redevelopment was replicated in each of the other homes.

Karen is of the belief that it’s important that nobody’s standard of living falls when they move into a care home and that people live in a nice environment.

Care home culture

The biggest challenge to Karen was changing the cultures of care in the homes. This she achieved through a combination of training existing staff and bringing in key people who share her vision of what an outstanding CQC rated home should look like.

One of the many innovations Karen employs to ensure her managers “buy-in” to her values is to get managers to live in the care home as a resident for one day. This means the manager, like the existing residents, must rely on the staff for their nutrition and hydration as well as social interaction.

Following the day, a feedback session is held with the management team to discuss how it feels to be in a home and how disempowering it can be. The vision is that people who come to live in one of Karen’s care homes is that of merely changing one’s address; people in the care home should be able to continue to live well and as they want to.

Karen identifies how even people who are frail can live busy and fulfilling lives when the emphasis changes from managing frailty to focusing on good health.

Care home staff development

Staff like working in a model of care that reflects the way they would like to live their own lives. Under the new regime they become motivated to help people do the things they would like to do themselves.

Staff talk about empathy all the time and they are proud of what they do, which is making sure people have a great life. Staff are further motivated through a range of incentives, including annual awards.

Care home staff training and development is therefore crucial for attaining and maintaining high standards and achieving an outstanding CQC rating.

Care home activities

Karen has completely changed the way care home activities are provided. There are no standard activities instead residents choose their own entertainment, such as in-house concerts, and invite their relatives and friends along to experience it with them.

People are engaged in a full range of activities such as yoga, swimming, theatre groups and outdoor activities including gardening and participating in a walking group. Each evening people choose how they spend their time, from watching films with a glass of wine to just socialising with others.

Person-centred care home assessments

Staff carry out a care needs assessment on each resident when they come into a home to predict the likelihood of a hospital admission, based on their GP summary. Measures are then put in place to prevent that happening.

The care homes have seen a drastic fall in admissions and real improvements in increasing people’s mobility. Every resident has a nutritional assessment and is provided with a range of foods that provide good health, with their nutritional and hydration intake monitored closely.

Each home employs its own physiotherapist who works with residents on a daily basis.

Being prepared for inspections

Each care home continually prepares for CQC and other care home inspections, ensuring they gather the evidence to support the characteristics of an outstanding CQC rated home.

The staff focus is on outcomes and the impact of actions taken. Ther is an emphasis on gathering evidence through auditing to show how the things that they do have a positive impact on people’s lives.

Summary

Karen has demonstrated to the CQC that she provides outstanding services. Analyses of the elements that lead to an outstanding CQC rating covered in this blog should provide

food for thought to CQC registered managers also aspiring to an outstanding CQC rating.

By far the most important change to any care home’s culture is getting staff to buy in to person-centred care. Together with outcome focussed management, regular auditing, visible leadership, and a quality management system, such as provided by Bettal Quality Consultancy, which meets CQC Standards, your care home, supported living service or domiciliary care agency can also achieve an outstanding CQC rating.

There are many good reasons for subscribing to Bettal for your policies and procedures not least among which are that they are tried and tested and written and updated by health and social care professionals. We also pride ourselves on our customer support, something which is not always available from some of the larger providers.

Bettal Quality Consultancy has a comprehensive and regularly updated suite of policies, procedures, risk assessments and comprehensive documentation tailored to all forms of social care provision, to support busy registered managers and their teams achieve CQC registration and ultimately the provision of CQC compliant care.

If you are ready to work towards an outstanding CQC rating? Contact Bettal Quality Consultancy today to learn how our comprehensive and value for money policies and procedures can help you achieve the success you deserve.

Visit our website at bettal.co.uk,

Email us at info@bettal.co.uk

Or call us at 08085 020483 to get started!