Care Agency Perspective: The State of Health Care and Adult Social Care in England 2018/19

Some of the quotes from the State of Health care and adult Social care in England 2018/19 report and the potential implications for care agencies or care providers.

You can read the full report on: https://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/20191015b_stateofcare1819_fullreport.pdf

“Providers’ profits have decreased by one percentage point from September 2016 to September 2018, driven mainly by increases in staff costs of 9.6%, which in turn are driven by a 28% increase in costs of using agency staff.”

“People should be able to get high-quality health and social care when and where they need it.”

With (several) recent health and social care reports highlighting the high staff turnover in social care (mainly) and the increase in pressure on services for the NHS, care agencies should be ensuring they have enough suitable/qualified candidates on their database to be able to provide temporary staff to support their clients. Winter is always a busy period for the NHS and Social care sector—this translates to more business opportunities for care agencies! Most health and social care agencies are already posting long term booking opportunities or Christmas shifts on their shift booking systems. How long do you spend on booking systems such as E-tips to find shifts for your candidates?

Care providing agencies (i.e. domiciliary care agencies) should ensure they are well staffed and strive to build/form relationships with care agencies which can provide them with staff to cover emergencies/sickness or holidays—this aids continuity of care (when agency staff get long-term booking), the potential for lower rates and people are able to ‘get high quality health and social care when and where they need it.’

“Increased demand, combined with challenges around workforce and access, risk creating a perfect storm. People who need support from mental health, learning disability or autism services may receive poor care from unqualified staff; they may have to wait until they are at crisis point to get the help they need; they may be detained in unsuitable services far from home; or they may be unable to access care at all.”

“This year, we are highlighting mental health and learning disability services because that’s where we are seeing a particular impact on both quality and people. Ratings are starting to deteriorate in mental health services. While our inspectors have seen good care, they have also seen too many mental health and learning disability services with people who lack the skills, training, experience or clinical support to care for patients with complex needs”

“...the rate of vacancies in adult social care services has continued to rise in recent years across most job roles”

“Workforce challenges have continued to affect the delivery of health and social care in all sectors, and staff are working in challenging working environments. For example, the 2018 NHS Staff Survey showed that in common with previous years, almost 40% of respondents said they had felt unwell as a result of work-related stress in the previous 12 months. Issues facing providers have included concerns relating to staff turnover, difficulty in getting the right skills mix, and competition for staff when recruiting, both across the health and care community and with other industries.”

CQC inspections help to identify opportunities for development for organisations to safeguard & deliver the very best of care when service users/patients access their services. It is also an opportunity for care providers to receive recognition for their work related to the Five Key Lines of Enquiry: Caring, Safe, Effective, Well-led, Responsive.

Do you understand your CQC rating (or regulatory body rating) and would you like help to improve or maintain it? Another concern for care providers and care agencies is the ‘lack of staff with skills, training and experience to support patients with complex needs.’ Are your staff trained and supported to deliver high quality care? Do you know about grants/funding available which you might be eligible for, to train your staff? Are you recruiting the right skills mix? How can you improve your staff retention rate?