Maintaining a Vibrant
Care Sector
Ash House
Management has developed a series of programmes to support Social
Services Departments and the Care Home Sector through the current
period of change following the Care Standards Act.
Programme
1: Ensuring Supply
A review of businesses in the sector is undertaken, using a structured
interview which examines the issues affecting the sector locally
and its ability to respond to wider service needs. This includes
the implications of the National Minimum Standards, business planning,
occupancy levels, contracting issues, cross border activity, marketing
and communication. Benchmark information is provided to participating
homes.
Programme
2: Identifying Strategic Demand
The concept is to work with the Social Services Department to
identify long term goals, and to provide a framework for achieving
supported living at home, analysing demand and suggesting methodologies
for achieving positive outcome objectives. This would also provide
a strategy document to enable the private Care Sector to consider
what restructuring was necessary to support the strategic direction.
Programme
3: Engaging Older People in a Contract of Care
'Better Government for Older People' and the Department of Health
call for older people to be represented in the development of
services and strategies.
This programme
seeks the views both of older people who have recently moved into
residential / nursing homes, and of those who are in receipt of
community care services in their own homes. This programme engages
with older people to solicit their input into the strategic planning
process.
Although these
programmes can be stand alone, they are intended to be integrated
to create a composite analysis of supply and demand which can
provide the basis of a common strategic plan for Social Services
and the Care Sector.
A
Review of the Care Sector
summary
of a recently completed project for a local authority
For the majority
of care homes which are not large corporate units with the business
skills to utilise market change to advantage, coming to terms
with the new National Minimum Standards can be seen as the final
straw.
Legislation
is an issue for the Care Sector as a whole, but for a small independent
home operating in isolation it is doubly so. The overhead cost
of complying with the National Minimum Standards is proportionally
greater for a small care home, and the cost per bed of achieving
and maintaining the Standards is felt hardest by the smaller units.
As part of
a support initiative for the sector, one county council used the
Small Business Service Business Review to assist the care homes
within its boundaries. The Reviews were funded by the Regional
Development Agency as part of the government's initiative to support
small businesses. The exercise was carried out at no cost to the
care homes.
The Business
Reviews are an assessment of individual homes against the Business
Excellence Model, in order to identify operational issues and
areas for development. The Business Review is not a panacea for
all the problems of the sector but it does allow businesses to
put their issues into context.
The care homes
that were reviewed welcomed the opportunity to discuss confidentially
all aspects of their business from personnel to balance sheet,
and receive meaningful feedback. They acknowledged the benefit
of re-appraising marketing, quality, staff turnover, recruitment
and profit and loss at a time when real-term income was falling.
Several homes acted upon the final report by developing business
plans, structuring quality systems, reviewing marketing, tracking
costs and planning for the future.
The County
also commissioned a confidential sector-wide survey which covered
all the issues currently affecting the sector, including controversial
questions centred around closure, owner retirement, clients supplemented
by third party payments, the effect of the minimum wage, the cost
of meeting the National Minimum Standards and details from the
latest Profit & Loss Account and Balance Sheet. The latter
information was developed into a number of benchmark statistics
based on income and individual costs per bed.
The benchmark
information was collated confidentially in terms of Residential
/ Dual / and Nursing & EMI homes, as this provided the most
consistent mix of issues and cost gradients, and returned to those
homes who took part, with a key to identify their own business,
so that they could compare their performance with others in the
sector.
The universal
shortage of business skills within the sector was identified as
a major factor in the difficulty of the small care homes in meeting
major organisational change, such as envisaged in the Care Standards
Act.
The effect
of the exercise for those who took part was overwhelmingly positive.
The care homes benefited from an overview of their business against
an objective assessment and from this were able to determine their
long term needs. These small homes are now able to see the future
of their business through the structured framework of a Business
Review. Business Plans, Staff Reviews and Marketing can all be
seen to combine into the good practice defined in the National
Minimum Standards.
The project
did not by any means solve all the issues for the sector, but
it did allow owners of small homes to view their businesses in
perspective and to prepare them for the challenge of meeting the
requirements of the Care Standards Act and the National Minimum
Standards.
For further
information telephone 01352 750300 or
complete the contact
page.
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