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Care homes look after some of society’s most vulnerable people. There must be strict procedures in place to ensure that they comply with all relevant legislation while providing the best quality of care within a safe and hygienic environment. All providers have a duty of care and must show evidence that standards are being upheld. This process is known collectively as quality and compliance.
Understanding the main roles and responsibilities of care homes, how they are regulated and monitored will help you to recognise whether or not a home is safe and well run.
Moving into residential care is a big step, and when you are making the decision – whether for yourself or a loved one – it is important to be clear about who does what.
Rights and responsibilities
Your care home is responsible for the following:
- Providing high-quality care and support that’s tailored to your needs so you can live your best life.
- Actively involving you, your family or your advocate/attorney in all decisions about your care.
- Always being honest and transparent with you, your family and your advocate/attorney.
- Keeping you safe in every possible way. This covers your physical safety and security, health needs, finances, rights to dignity and to live your life as you wish. It also encompasses the safety and privacy of your personal information and data. Safeguarding (protecting someone’s right to live safely, free from either abuse or neglect) is a major part of a care home’s responsibility to all its residents, especially people with dementia who may be unable to communicate their needs or fears easily.
So that we can care for you in the way that you would wish, you or your relative/attorney have some responsibilities, too, which are to:
- Provide updated details of your next-of-kin.
- Keep us updated with your personal circumstances and make sure we have all relevant information about your health needs.
- Provide us with information about you so that we can get to know you and your preferences.
- Be open and transparent about your finances.
- Settle your invoices promptly.
Our governance
Our primary aim is to facilitate the best outcomes for residents, enabling them to maintain their highest possible quality of life. To achieve this, staff must understand exactly what they need to do, when and how, enabled by the right training, management and motivation – with their every single action recorded, audited and measured.
We have our own bespoke online governance and quality process, known internally as the Quality Cycle. This facilitates the auditing, recording, sharing of action points and information, identifying risks, trends, issues and training needs. Regular meetings are held between our home management team and the Head of Quality & Compliance which result in robust action plans which are continuously reviewed and new actions issued. Outcomes are reported to residents and families, and so the cycle runs continuously.
Our homes are regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). As well as the mandatory inspections carried out by the CQC at regular intervals, we use various internal methods to check that we are providing the high quality of care that we are known for, such as:
- Regular mock inspections which are more exacting than even CQC’s standards to drive good care.
- Monthly audits to monitor the quality of our care, the cleanliness/hygiene of our homes, how we are responding to residents’/families’ feedback and so on.
- Regular health and safety meetings to discuss particular issues and lessons learnt.
- Monitoring falls, bell calls, pressure sores and other aspects of our residents’ care and wellbeing.
- Experienced carers (who are also quality care leads) uphold quality in all areas and are role models for colleagues.
External regulation, oversight and safeguarding
Care providers are continually monitored by regulatory bodies such as the Care Quality Commission or the local authority.
Local authority
Under the Care Act 2014 local authorities have a role to play in safeguarding – protecting your right to live in safety, free from physical, mental, emotional and financial abuse as well as neglect. The local authority is usually the first point of contact if you or your family have concerns.
But safeguarding is also the responsibility of other people and organisations that care for older people. For example, the Care Act 2014 requires staff in banks to be aware of the prevalence of financial abuse of vulnerable older people, such as scams or pressure relating to their money. Local authority income teams will usually make a safeguarding referral if a person’s care fees are not being paid.
Click here to find out more about local authorities’ role in care and safeguarding.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC)
CQC is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. It carries out regular inspections of care facilities and publishes its findings. It exists to make sure that health and social care services provide safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality care. This is vital because care home residents are vulnerable and often cannot speak up for themselves.
CQC may get involved in safeguarding if it is contacted directly by a resident or family member. If this is the case, it will forward the concern to the local authority safeguarding team to handle. CQC’s main role within safeguarding is to hold providers to account and secure improvements via enforcement action.
Complaints
In the unlikely event that there is a problem, we do everything we can to resolve this quickly and courteously. Click here to view our complaints procedure. Our quality team also provides confidential and independent support for families via quality@canfordhealthcare.co.uk
Your privacy
We have a very clear privacy policy concerning the information we hold about our residents and how we use this. In line with GDPR, we only hold and use the information that we need to fulfil our contract with people, send marketing material (if consent has been given) and monitor the use of our website.
