Ekta Mehta, Author at CACI

CQC inspections: what is the new framework & how often are inspections?

Posted on: 12 February 2025

The new CQC inspection framework poses five key questions of care services. Our checklist is designed to help you be prepared

CQC inspections are a challenging and stressful time for any care service provider. There is always an element of the unknown. However, if you have everything in place it can make the process as smooth as possible and alleviate much of the stress and uncertainty. We’ve created a free checklist that you can use to help prepare for your CQC inspections. To start, we wanted to look at the CQC inspection framework and how often are CQC inspections.

How often are CQC inspections?

How often CQC inspections are conducted on care services depends on when the care service was registered and the results of any previous inspections carried out.

For newly registered care services, they will be inspected within the first 12 months of opening.

If a care service achieves a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ result, then they will be inspected again within the next five years. From CQC data available from August 2023, c.5% of adult social care services in England were rated as outstanding, or roughly 1200 services. Achieving such a result within the CQC’s new inspection framework satisfies them that a service is meeting or exceeding the minimum expectations of recipients of care.

Where a result falls below this and achieves a CQC inspection result of ‘requires improvement’, the CQC will inspect that service again within the next 12 months, until such a time that the CQC has determined that the service has improved.

Falling below that and achieving a result of ‘inadequate’ according to the CQC’s inspection framework means that a care service will be inspected within six months. Improvement in such services is considered urgent, so inspections are more frequent to ensure that the necessary improvements happen.

The CQC’s new inspection framework

The CQC’s new inspection framework is its single assessment framework (SAF). This CQC inspection framework asks five key questions of every service it inspects. The CQC asks if services are:

Safe
Effective
Caring
Responsive to people’s needs
Well led

By obtaining responses to these five key questions, the CQC’s new inspection framework gains deeper understanding of each care service. The CQC answers these questions by visiting the care service, speaking with employees and clients and going through care records, any complaints and feedback.

How often are CQC inspections and how can you ace them?

You want the answer to be ‘every five years’. Obviously, you want to be inspected as infrequently as possible. This is the surest sign that your care services are on the right path.

To help you in achieving this, we’ve put together a checklist that helps you to prepare for inspections inline with the CQC’s inspection framework.

The checklist takes you through each question in the single assessment framework (SAF), helping you to prepare documents, responses and ensure that staff are briefed prior to a CQC inspection.

Why not take a look? The checklist is free to download and you get your copy here.

School exclusions have doubled in the past decade. What can we do?

Posted on: 11 December 2024

School exclusions have been in the news again recently, with the BBC saying that they’ve doubled in the past decade. Fixed term exclusions, or suspensions, are twice as high as they were 10 years ago and permanent exclusions have shot up by 70%. Scratching beneath the surface of the numbers, 90% of those permanently excluded have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). The numbers in the BBC’s report focus on primary schools, but this is a trend that we have discussed previously across the entirety of the education system.

What was clear then, too, was the disadvantaging of the disadvantaged. Children from deprived areas are far more likely to face some form of exclusion than their peers. This is evidenced by the likelihood of children eligible for free school meals facing exclusion. 67% of pupils with an exclusion or suspension at primary school had also been on free school meals, according to research by the children’s charity ChanceUK.

ChanceUK further finds that 90% of children excluded at primary school fail their English and Maths GCSEs. There is a lasting impact to exclusion, be it permanent or fixed, that an increasing number of children and their families are facing up to.

How can school exclusions be reduced?

The recurring link between disadvantage and SEND to school exclusions tells its own story. The longer children go with unmet needs, the longer their behaviour is going to be punished in school settings. Rather than understanding and interpreting a child’s behaviour, it can be easier for schools to exclude them. This, on the face of it, is justifiable, too. If a child is persistently disrupting lessons and impacting the education of their classmates, then the school has to act.

Identifying unmet needs earlier is essential. As we found out with Milton Keynes last year, 88% of children in contact with youth offending teams in the locality were found to have unidentified speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). “Communication and the understanding that comes from this is key to thinking, processing, anticipating and understanding consequences,” they told us. “If we carried on as if children automatically have these skills, when it was clear they don’t, this was a recipe for failure carrying consequences for these children and for the rest of society.”

Joining the dots between education and circumstance is essential. It’s imperative that understanding is built between schools and those pupils deemed disruptive. The likelihood of them falling into criminality rises exponentially once they are excluded, as evidenced by 88% of children in contact with youth justice services in Milton Keynes having SLCN.

Where context and understanding are built into the system around children, it makes it easier to identify those children most at risk of having SLCN and SEND. From there, preventative steps can be taken.

Can technology support a reduction in school exclusions?

The role of technology systems will be fundamental in reducing the number of school exclusions. More prosaic aspects such as the school admissions process can help to ensure that children are attending the right school. This extends to the right school in terms of locality to their home, increasing the likelihood of attendance. From there, any needs can be considered in a central system when assigning children to school places.

Where SEND is suspected, it’s important that referrals are made and assessments conducted as soon as possible. This will then lead into other aspects of the child’s journey such as education health and care plans (EHCPs). It is vital that all information is easily recorded and easily accessed by relevant parties involved in the child’s journey.

Making data easily accessible is an important point. Linking education to circumstances drives understanding. Creating a hub through which parents, schools and professionals can log and access information on a child makes navigating their journey more straightforward. It also builds rich data insights, further enhancing knowledge and understanding of processes that work in combatting aspects such as school exclusions.

Find out how Impulse can help

CACI’s education management system, Impulse, provides education services and local authorities with the information they need to understand each child’s journey. With specialist SEND, EHCP, admissions and social inclusion modules, it supports the parts of the process you need supporting.

At CACI, we also support more than 70% of youth justice services in the UK. This builds a clear link between education and youth justice, something that is prevalent in the case of school inclusions. Our work helps to support children and their families in that context. It also helps schools to prevent them from ever getting there.

For more information, contact us now.

Single view of a child – linking youth justice to education

Posted on: 18 November 2024

Whilst the operations of education and youth justice practitioners run separate from one another, there are areas of overlap. In these areas, information sharing and working from the same record can be beneficial to both parties. Ultimately, it is also beneficial to the young people involved. A shared understanding via a single view of each young person can help in both intervention and improving outcomes for vulnerable young people.

Common understanding over crucial matters is a prerequisite. For example, where children are arrested, their school must be informed. This means that schools need to be able to send and receive information to and from the police and youth justice workers.

Whilst that might be an extreme example, it does of course happen. The sharing of information is the crucial aspect here, though. How far can this be extended to improve outcomes for children? Such examples highlight that information sharing is possible.

Attendance records

With every child required to attend school, their attendance data is instructive, not only to their school and parents/carers, but where applicable, social and youth justice workers too. Where a young person who is in the youth justice system misses school, it is imperative that this information is shared with their youth justice team.

Children missing school is an obvious red flag to youth justice and social workers. Mandatory reporting on the attendance of looked after children is already in place, further reporting on children known to other external agencies can help them greatly.

Sharing information and data is a key area in preventing children and young people from falling through the cracks.

How can shared data help in a multi-agency scenario?

There are various estimates as to the number of children missing education. This depends upon the parameters set and the threshold of days missed. NCB estimates that the number is just shy of 50,000. This number is for children who are not registered at a school and are not receiving appropriate home schooling.

Running parallel to this is the estimate that some 50,000 children are involved in county lines drug dealing activities. Of course, not every child missing education is going to be involved in such activities, but the numbers bear a striking similarity. If children aren’t at school, what are they doing? Perhaps more pertinently, under the auspices of which agency do they fall?

When children fall into the youth justice sector, an understanding of their school attendance record can be insightful in painting a picture of their journey. Non-attendance gives some strong clues as to what they may have been doing. Establishing this data link with education can help youth justice teams and workers greatly.

Similarly, when a child moves school, it is beneficial that their new school has a clear record of them. If they have been involved with youth justice workers, it can help in understanding their background and their requirements. Similarly, where health concerns are prevalent, it’s important that the school has oversight of such information.

A single view of the child

This is a topic we’ve explored in our recent white paper. “At present we are seeing far too many examples of children not receiving the care they need because of a disjointed service and system response. Teachers, care and social workers, police, parents, local authority professionals and youth justice workers – even doctors and health professionals – are all stretched; piecing together a young person’s story from disparate information points makes an already challenging task even more so. Information on a young person is too often siloed and inaccessible.”

The information held by one agency is often valuable to another. Everyone is pulling in the same direction, so creating efficiency and a more joined-up response to the needs of vulnerable young people makes a great deal of sense.

This can be achieved with a single view of the child. If there’s a consistent record that can be accessed and added to by multiple agencies, it makes it far easier for disparate parts of the system response to work efficiently and effectively.

Conclusion

There are demonstrably strong ties between the work done in agencies such as schools and youth justice teams. Linking that work together, where necessary and appropriate, can help to improve outcomes for the children and young people in their services. It can further support the work of other professionals and agencies involved in a young person’s journey, too.

The technology exists today to help make a difference; to help join the dots in a journey. This helps to remove duplication of effort, guesswork and assumptions. If all parties can work around a single source of the truth, it makes understanding a young person’s journey and interpreting their story much easier. Bridging these gaps in understanding at schools and in youth justice teams can further help to tackle the complexity in each story. Having a basic understanding of their journey is so important in shaping their future.

This is a topic that we explored in our recent white paper, Single view of a child. You can download your free copy here.

Early Years funding rules have been in scope for change in recent times. How agile is your LA to the changes?

Posted on: 13 November 2024

Early Years funding is essential in providing the best possible outcomes to children from the outset of their educational journey. Funding depends on several factors. The rules themselves, too, are undergoing change. From eligibility to age of the child and the number of hours funded, local authorities need a system in place that can be agile to these changes. Failure to respond to Early Years funding changes can have a negative impact on children and their families. It is essential to be adaptable in the face of changing rules.

How does Early Years funding work?

Early Years funding is based on eligibility criteria. In September 2024, a new 15 hour working parent entitlement was introduced. This saw the expansion of funding extend down to nine-month-olds. In September 2025, the entitlement will be increasing to 30 hours.

This requires a re-working of the funding section of the software and systems utilised by local authorities in managing their Early Years funding. If the systems used can’t adapt to the changes, then it will necessitate a manual way of working out the rules and matching them to eligibility. This will further require manual effort in working out what is due to each provider.

Having a system in place that can work out who is owed what is important for accurate billing and payments. This includes clawbacks from providers where children have moved nursery. Without a system to support the process, human error becomes an increasingly viable factor, as do elements such as falsified and inaccurate claims.

With the rules in something of a state of flux at present, being agile to changes is vital.

How can technology support Early Years funding?

Technology can make the entire process of Early Years funding more accurate, easier for providers and easier for local authorities. Providers are required to submit headcounts to get funding from the local authority. Where local authorities can set providers up on a provider portal, it makes the process of submitting estimates, headcounts and amendments seamless for providers. It further makes the process easier for local authorities to track and manage.

This also makes it easier for the local authority to see what each provider is owed, as estimate payments are worked out, based on their bespoke percentage rules. When the providers then submit actuals through the portal, the local authority can immediately see what the outstanding balance is for each provider and settle it.

When rules change, your technology system should also be able to incorporate the new rules in a timely manner. This will result in a frictionless transition in your Early Years funding process.

How Impulse Nexus helps local authorities with their Early Years funding

We’ve designed Impulse Nexus to be responsive to rule changes, from funding periods to the age of children eligible. It is designed to make managing the end-to-end process easy. Impulse Nexus includes:

A providers’ portal through which they can submit estimates, actuals, headcounts and amendments

A live register of children at each provider

A banner to display which submission window is open, the status and how many days are remaining

A display of how many hours each child is claiming

Flags to indicate what each child is eligible for

The ability to bulk edit children’s hours

The provider can see a history of all submissions and how much was paid per child

The ability to reduce administrative time for your Early Years team

A full audit trail of submissions, payment rates and rejections

The ability to set your own funding periods, submission dates and rates

The ability to set up stretched funding models

Validation errors displayed in real time, with reasoning

Management area for local authorities to view and approve checks, validate the cross provider children, and children that haven’t yet been matched to a core record

The ability to customise funding types for legislation changes and regional requirements

Ultimately, Impulse Nexus provides you with a clear and consistent process in line with your local authority’s bespoke rules. We understand that each local authority has different rules and processes in place, so being able to implement your process is important. It’s also crucial to have a system in place that can be adapted to changes in legislation.

For more information, please visit our website.

Gaining a single view of the child in multi-agency scenarios

Posted on: 11 November 2024

Every child in the education and youth justice systems has their own, unique story. How can this story be accessed, understood and interpreted by the various agencies that they come into contact with? A single view of each child, which is accessible to the multiple agencies, helps to form a consistent thread of knowledge and understanding. This can be used to provide not only the best available care to each child, but to improve efficiency across the services they interact with.

There are several examples where different agencies require the same, or similar, information. Teachers, care and social workers, police, parents, local authority professionals and youth justice workers – even doctors and health professionals – are all stretched; piecing together a young person’s story from disparate information points makes an already challenging task even more so. Information on a young person is too often siloed and inaccessible.

Creating a single view carries many benefits for both children and professionals. This blog explores the benefits of a single view of a child. This is not to say a single system response – different technology works for different agencies. We explored how interoperability between systems will benefit children in a previous blog. This blog sets out to explore the benefit of achieving this single view.

Improved efficiency and cohesion

With resources stretched, efficiency gains are vital in being able to provide improved outcomes to more children. Where personnel and agencies change, a single view is vital in them being able to hit the ground running. Where information is inaccessible and difficult to interpret, it can result in the same questions being asked and the same ground being covered.

Make it easy for new practitioners

Turnover of staff is inevitable. Making it easy for new personnel is imperative. Not only does it create efficiency, but it makes their job much, much easier. Starting from scratch with any child or young person is a challenging phase, with the need to build understanding and trust with them, particularly in a youth justice and social care setting. If new practitioners to a child’s journey can access and interpret their story to date, it helps them to understand the child, which helps them to take proactive steps immediately towards improving their outcomes.

Improve understanding of each child

There is so much that plays into each child’s journey, and so much information that is relevant to it. From school attendance data to police and healthcare records, it is a constantly moving and evolving journey. A simple oversight of the agencies involved is instructive; what care have they received and from whom? This helps to not only understand each child individually, but to implement data mapping which forms a more holistic understanding of children in similar scenarios and what is the best way to help them.

Linking disparate responses

Each agency has information that is relevant to them and only them. Where the single view is beneficial is in areas of overlapping responses. For example, schools need to know if a pupil has been arrested. Similarly, if a child is diagnosed with SEND, that information is relevant to their entire educational journey. It is also useful information for youth justice workers in understanding young people in their services. A sharing of such information is vital in the multi-agency response to such children. If this information becomes siloed, it will hamper the response of other agencies to a young person.

Timely, accurate information

Once information is known, recording and sharing it with other agencies in a timely manner is crucial. Again, the single view is crucial, since it enables other agencies to access such relevant information against a child as soon as it is available. Accessing such information can help agency to tailor their response to a child as and when they need to interact with them.

Conclusion

The single view can be achieved in different ways, but it works to the same outcome: the improved outcomes of children and young people interacting with various agencies.

Where professionals can record their information, it is vital that it doesn’t become siloed. The sharing of relevant information with other agencies will fundamentally help them in achieving the goals they themselves set out to achieve. Everyone is pulling in the same direction, so it makes sense to support this with appropriate data sharing to enhance understanding of children and young people to improve their outcomes.

This is a topic that we have explore more comprehensively in our recent white paper, which you can download for free here.

The importance of interoperability in multi-agency youth justice scenarios

Posted on: 1 November 2024

In cases around vulnerable children, we repeatedly see how many different agencies and professionals are involved in their story. For a young person in the youth justice system, there are several agencies all attempting to intervene to improve their outcomes; youth justice teams, police, social workers, their school, parents and health workers. With so many agencies potentially in play, how can a clear and consistent thread of information be created on each young person for the betterment of their journey?

A single view of the child for youth justice workers

Having access to a single thread of information, a single source of the truth, is vital. It helps to remove duplication of effort not only for each agency, but for the young person, too. With multifarious agencies turning up on a carousel of touchpoints along the journey, many covering the same ground, it erodes trust in the services that are in situ to help them.

It can be challenging enough within a single agency. Youth justice teams are stretched. Human relationships don’t work to a set plan, so changes in personnel across a young person’s journey are inevitable. How can a practitioner who is new to a young person’s case understand and interpret their story without needing to repeat previously asked questions?

A central database of activities, touchpoints and notes is essential. A single thread of information makes it easier for information to be looked at and understood. If notes are siloed into individual practitioners, for example if they are recorded only via pen and paper, then it makes it incredibly difficult for others to pick up the pieces when they need to.

If interoperability between practitioners within the same agency is impossible, then how can this information be shared effectively with other agencies?

Achieving interoperability for the benefit of youth justice work

Interoperability starts within a single agency, in the way in which information is recorded, shared and understood within it. Interoperability then needs to extend to multi-agency scenarios.

The several touchpoints in the journey of a young person within the youth justice sector demonstrate this. How can the police effectively share information with the other agencies involved? How can youth justice teams make their information available to the other agencies? By creating a mutual base of understanding around each vulnerable young person.

Understanding is essential to improving outcomes. We also see the affect of things such as trauma in a young person’s story. How can their story and circumstances be interpreted in improving their outcomes? These often intangible aspects can go undetected – having a consistent base of information can help in identifying them. There’s no one size fits all solution to dealing with youth offending, so being able to interpret and understand their journey from a comprehensive base of information is crucial.

A single source of information is to the benefit of everyone; the young person, their family and the agencies involved in their journey. But how can this be achieved?

Technology response to interoperability

The underlying system of recording information is fundamental in achieving this. In the same way that there is no one size fits all approach to improving outcomes for vulnerable young people, there is no one size fits all technology system for the agencies involved in their journey.

It is inevitable that different agencies will deploy different technology. Information and security will be different for each, as will the method of recording of information. But how can the relevant information within each agency be made available for wider use by external agencies which are seeking the same outcomes?

Everyone is pulling in the same direction, so it makes sense to share information and valuable insight. Each agency needs to understand the intervention points of the others.

Conclusion

Every touchpoint recorded with a young person in the youth justice sector is relevant to their journey. It forms part of the system response to them and their case. Having a holistic view of these touchpoints is vital for youth justice teams and workers in interpreting their story and intervening appropriately to help improve their outcomes.

Creating a single view of each child helps each agency to better contribute to their journey. Interoperability of systems is essential in achieving this. Using software that facilitates interaction and data sharing with other agencies utilising different software will facilitate this.

Where information gets siloed, it essentially gets lost. It sits within an agency in isolation, useless to the other touchpoints a vulnerable young person will have with other agencies. Bringing this information together not only creates understanding around a young person’s journey, it also creates efficiency in the process for the agencies involved.

If everyone can record on and interact with a single source of the truth, it will help every agency and youth justice worker to understand and interpret the journey of the young person.

Creating a single view of the child is a topic CACI has explored in a recent white paper, which you can download for free here.

Understanding digital care plans & the best care management software

Posted on: 29 October 2024

Person-centred plans help you to unlock the potential of your care services in delivering the best possible outcomes for each of your clients. No two recipients of your services are the same. They require different medication, different services, get on with different people and interact differently with you. This poses a challenge to your services, since there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Deploying the best care management software can help you in delivering digital care plans and digital care planning that puts your clients first and keeps them informed of their care journey. Download a copy of The top seven features you need from your care management software now.

Digital care plans

Moving away from paper records and manual ways of planning carries numerous benefits. By creating digital care plans, you can more easily access information, edit it and share it.

Easy access to digital care plans enables you to report on them internally to better understand patterns in your services. You can then identify what works and what doesn’t. Does a client have a better relationship with one of your care workers than any other, for example? You can then consider such factors when scheduling your care workers.

One thing the CQC looks for during inspections is the role your clients play in their own care. Maintaining digital care plans makes it easier for them to input into their own care and understand their options, including for aspects such as end of life care.

The ability to share your data on clients is also a factor considered by the CQC. Being able to share aspects of your services, such as digital care plans, demonstrates that you can support your clients in their interactions with other services. For example, if they decided to join your services from somewhere else, being able to import and understand their data will help you in providing the best possible care from the very beginning.

Putting clients in control is important. The best care management software will help you by providing a portal through which clients and their loved ones can interact with their digital care plans and your services.

Digital care planning

Digital care planning puts both you and your clients in greater control of the care journey. Feeding your digital care planning into a friends and family portal puts an arm around your clients and their loved ones. Offering such transparency of your services, past, present and future, is impossible with paper records stored in an office.

Clear communication with your care workers is another vital step in delivering outstanding person-centred care to your clients. The best care management software can support your digital care planning with a mobile app. Through this, you can make your digital care plans visible to care workers as and when they need them. At each visit, you can provide clear instructions as to expected time of visit, access and medication required to be administered.

As your care workers work through their visits, they can record outcomes as they go. With real-time visit information available to you, you can then update the client’s portal accordingly, reassuring their loved ones that visits have happened.

Complete digital care planning in this way, from initial plan creation to scheduling care workers to recording visit outcomes, provides you with a complete audit trail of your services. This will make life easier when it comes to CQC inspections, for example. You will be in a strong position to simply make your digital care planning available to inspectors as part of their inspection.

How the best care management software can help you

By having all your data in one place, it makes access and transparency more straightforward. Who did what, where and when? The best care management software will enable easy interrogation of your digital care planning.

It should also be flexible to yours and your clients’ needs. No two clients are the same, nor are two care services. Being able to implement the digital care plans that you and your clients need is imperative in any outstanding care service.

Digital care plans are just one facet of how the best care management software will assist your services. Digital care planning, however, is one of the most important since it outlines how you deliver care to your clients. Ease and transparency are essential. Your software should support this.

We’ve written a free to download white paper outlining the top seven features that the best care management software should provide. From digital care plans to financial management, it should underpin your outstanding services.

Why not take a look? It’s free to download here.

How can care management software underpin outstanding person-centred care?

Posted on: 24 October 2024

Person-centred care planning and delivery is the backbone of any outstanding care service. It’s something that the CQC actively looks for when conducting inspections, a hallmark of quality care services. From planning and delivering to putting your clients in control of the care they receive, how can you best deliver person-centred care? Download a copy of The top seven features you need from your care management software now.

Person-centred care starts with the person

It’s obvious to point out, but the best way of delivering person-centred care is by involving them. Understanding each client’s medical and care needs is one thing, but how involved are they in the process of the care they receive?

A central record for each client is essential. A care management system can support you in this by providing an easy to create and easy to edit record for every client. When they enter your service, being able to understand their medical record and the exact care they need collaboratively with them is imperative. You can then provide this information to your care workers ahead of and during visits, ensuring that the right care is administered at the right time.

But people’s needs evolve over time. From new prescriptions to changes in preferences, keeping the care you provide to each client up to date is vital. It is also important to be able to share their data with third parties and other providers for any care they receive outside of your services. A care management system can support you in easily and securely sharing relevant data in line with data protection regulations.

The needs and desires of your clients may also change over time. In a lot of care settings, aspects such as end of life often need to be considered. Putting your clients in control of this process is essential. Every client deserves a bespoke care plan and the dignity and respect to make their own decisions.

Involve their loved ones in their person-centred care

In a lot of cases, your clients will have loved ones who are actively interested in the care you provide to them. Reassuring them of upcoming and completed visits, the activities and tasks undertaken, as well as any actions to be taken, is a great way of involving them and evidencing how person-centred you are being.

This can be achieved through the provision of a friends and family portal. Your care management software should support you in establishing this, making simple, secure logins available to authorised users to access a client’s care plan. This is also a great way of getting feedback from your clients on the services they are receiving from you.

Users logging on to the portal can see upcoming and completed visits and obtain information such as medication administered and to be administered. A portal is also a great way of receiving input from family members too, where small details or observations around tweaking your care planning can prove really transformative for the person you support.

Understanding clients’ preferences

A simple way of going above and beyond in providing person-centred care to your clients is to understand their preferences. The CQC notes that these should be recorded once and shared with relevant stakeholders across your care service to avoid duplication of questions with clients.

This helps to add a human touch to their care. If, for example, you have someone who owns cats, this could be something that could be discussed with them during their visits.

Also, if they have upcoming life events, such as a birthday, prompting this information to your care workers means that it’s easy for them to mention and take into consideration. Understanding your clients and sharing this type of understanding with your care workers can deliver excellent outcomes.

Your care management software can help you with the provision of a mobile app for your care workers. They can access visit information and see details such as birthdays and interests in the app as they go about their visits.

Continuity of care is another important means of providing person-centred care. Clients will naturally establish relationships with certain care workers. By rostering care workers consistently to clients, you can provide this continuity.

Again, your care management software should help with this. Making rostering easier, technology can suggest ‘best fit’ allocations of care workers to care plans, considering not only relevant skills and experience, but also factors such as them having a positive relationship with a care worker.

Conclusion

There are several factors that play directly into providing outstanding person-centred care. From understanding the client and their medical needs, to sharing this information with your care workers and rostering the right staff to the right clients, person-centred care requires research, effort and consistency.

Care management software can underpin this process. Creating a central record of each client makes understanding them and their bespoke needs easier. Equally, a central record of each care worker facilitates smoother alignment of your care plans and your staff rosters.

It’s one thing providing person-centred care, and another evidencing it. When CQC inspections inevitably come around, being able to display your care planning, rosters, client visit history and records of communication, you can more easily demonstrate to external stakeholders that your care service puts its clients first.

Every client deserves their own bespoke care plan. Every client deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Ensuring this happens can be easier than you might think.

We’ve covered this and more in our latest white paper which outlines the top seven features the best care management software should provide to you. It’s free to download, so why not take a look?

The Care Show 2024 – the evolving role of care management technology

Posted on: 17 October 2024

There are several issues at the forefront of the minds of those involved in the care industry right now. From managing CQC inspections to coping with increasing vacancies in the sector, there are several key issues to traverse. Throw in data security and the need to digitise care records and it can appear an overwhelming to do list. Alongside evolving concerns, however, are evolving solutions. There is an increasingly prevalent role being played by care management technology in the care sector. We wanted to round up a few key issues from the 2024 Care Show and look at how they can be addressed.

CQC inspections

Finding a popular regulator in any industry is difficult, but there’s a widespread challenge across the care sector in understanding the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) single assessment framework (SAF).

The outbreak of the global Covid pandemic saw a shift to a risk-based approach. The number of completed CQC inspections is yet to reach pre-pandemic levels. This has left some care providers with a rating of ‘requires improvement’ hanging over them for a number of years. This has a knock-on effect on client confidence and the wider business.

When it comes to inspections, it was clear across the Care Show that there’s dissatisfaction and misunderstanding of the SAF, too.

How can care management technology help?

Whilst care management technology can do nothing to alter the rate of inspections, it can help care providers get into position for them. If all your care plans, records and outcomes are recorded in a central system, it makes the process of presenting evidence to the CQC much easier.

When it comes to answering specific questions, having all the information easily available reduces the effort in answering them.

Digitising social care

“70% of providers have digital social care records. This is expected to reach 80% by March 2025,” says Peter Skinner, programme director, digitising social care at the NHS.

Technology is accepted as having a crucial role for care providers and their clients. More links need to be established between care providers and the NHS. Care management technology is a key enabler in getting people back into a residential setting following hospital visits. It’s also a key enabler in equipping NHS staff with the right information and context on a client when they have to visit hospital.

The NHS has built standard data capture, the market now needs to understand how it can be used. It’s a two-way journey: admissions info for NHS staff and discharge info back to providers. Joining these up will create efficiencies and a better process for people receiving care. The standardised data set exists at a national level, making it easy to access for everyone with a single access point.

It’s important to maintain standards for providers accessing technology. The NHS is driving interoperability and providers needs to understand what they’re buying.

How can care management technology help?

This is an obvious area in which care management technology is imperative. Maintaining paper records is inefficient and risks vital information going missing. Being able to share the digital information captured with stakeholders quickly and accurately improves care quality. Failing to act on the point of digitising care planning and records will see providers left behind.

If you’re still working manually, it’s time to speak to a care management software provider. Equally as important, you also need to understand what you’re buying and the impact it will have on your business.

Cyber security

This is perhaps another obvious area for technology, but cyber security is a genuine concern in the care industry. The process of caring for people necessitates the handling and processing of sensitive information. Such information is valuable to criminals. So, how can you best protect yourself?

One of the points raised across the Care Show was the need to continually educate your staff, from administrators to care workers. Your cyber security is only as good as your weakest link. If someone clicks on a malicious link, that can be enough to cause chaos.

How can care management technology help?

Partnering with a care management technology provider is an opportunity to gain real peace of mind with your data security. An obvious starting point is to check their security certificates for things like Cyber Essentials and ISO27001. This offers assurance that your care management technology partner is certified to the highest standards.

There are other factors to consider, such as where your data will be stored. For example, CACI use AWS to store Certa’s data. This helps to leverage Amazon’s significant security expenditure for your data.

The care workforce

There is general dismay at the attitude towards and treatment of care workers in the UK. “They are underpaid and underappreciated,” said Karolina Gerlich, CEO of The Care Workers’ Charity. “Recent pay rises of 10p per hour are unacceptable. Care workers are considered low skilled and those arriving from overseas don’t enjoy benefits such as being able to bring their own families with them.”

There is little surprise that care workers are being easily tempted away by other industries. They get similar or better pay and less stressful working conditions. It’s therefore unsurprising that vacancy rates are so high in the care sector.

Beyond that, there was discussion at the Care Show around how providers can better support their care workers. It is widely believed that more support is required, in terms of communication and specialisation. This comes back to understanding your workforce. Assigning care workers to areas that they’re really good at and really interested in is an effective way of keeping them engaged. Further focussing training for them on those areas is another positive.

Training was mentioned as something that needs to go beyond just mandatory refresher training, to courses that expand people’s professional profiles, offering them career development.

Communication is another vital thread. Considering the impact of new technology on care workers and involving them in the decision making process helps to make them feel appreciated and involved. Bringing them closer to the central team improves connection and the sense of involvement. Ultimately, if you look after your care workers, you reduce your expenditure on recruitment, especially at a time when there are more vacancies than care workers. Having a happy, consistent team of care workers will also ensure the ongoing quality and consistency of care you provide to your client.

How can care management technology help?

Care technology can support care workers in several ways. Simple additions to your care management technology such as a care worker app can help to clearly communicate with care workers and enhance lone worker safety.

It can also help you in understanding your care workers and their expertise. What do they specialise in? What are they good at? Which clients do they get on with? How can you make their day efficient and effective? How can you ensure they have all the information they need for each visit?

Care management technology can support this. You can then better roster your care workers and provide appropriate training opportunities. In the same way that no two clients are the same, nor are two care workers. They have different interests and specialities. Providing them with the opportunity to enhance their careers with you will make them more likely to stay.

The cost of recruitment is only going up and with more vacancies than care workers there is ample opportunity for care workers to explore other opportunities. Simply treating them fairly, involving them and offering training and progression is a great way to go about keeping them.

Conclusion

There were several points of interest across the Care Show. If you’re affected or concerned by any of the issues raised here, we’ve designed Certa to help you. Find out more by visiting https://www.caci.co.uk/software/certa/

The SEND improvement plan and reshaping EHCPs

Posted on: 15 October 2024

One of the suggestions of the recent SEND review was to overhaul EHCPs, something that is being continued under the SEND AP improvement plan.

The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned the SEND Review in 2019. The aim of this review was to explore the challenges faced by children and their families with identified special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). In March 2022, after much consultation, a green paper was published which puts forward several suggestions as to how the SEND process can be better administered to improve efficiency and, ultimately, improve outcomes for those children and their families. In amongst the plethora of suggestion sits one around EHCPs (education, health and care plans).

Despite delays to parts of the implementation of the recommendations laid out in the SEND green paper, the SEND Alternative Provision Improvement Plan seeks to press on with revised EHCPs; “This will include delivery of digital requirements for EHCP systems to improve experiences for parents, carers and professionals, decrease bureaucracy and improve the ability to monitor the health of the SEND system.”

What does the DfE want to do with EHCPs?

In short, the DfE wants to streamline EHCPs. As things stand, there is a loose outline for EHCPs but the level of detail within them is at local discretion. This has resulted in inconsistencies at local and national levels, leading to inconsistent responses to them. This is particularly acute where professionals work across two localities: getting to grips with two interpretations of EHCPs takes time and increases the manual, administrative burden upon professionals.

As the SEND green paper notes; “There were inconsistences in the structure, length and formatting of EHCP forms, with the samples included in the analysis ranging from a maximum of 40 pages in one local authority to between 8 and 23 in another. The EHCPs produced by the local authorities in the sample would take approximately 50 minutes on average to read aloud to a child. This lack of consistency means that partners who work across multiple local authorities must navigate multiple processes and templates, reducing their capacity to deliver support and adding to their administrative burden… We therefore propose to introduce standardised EHCP templates and processes.”

Sounds sensible, how will it work in practice?

The central hook upon which EHCPs will be hung going forward will be via a template provided by the DfE – a standard EHCP template with supporting processes and guidance is expected in 2025. This will standardise the information captured, simplifying the interpretation of the information within them and making it easier to input appropriately into each child’s journey.

Another rule that the DfE is seeking to implement around EHCPs is that any changes to them will need to be signed off by the parents of the child. Their increased involvement is seen as central to the success of the SEND process going forward.

The fundamental change to the management and administration of EHCPs is that the DfE is looking to fully digitise them. This will make the process much more efficient and transparent, reducing bureaucracy, since each EHCP will have a fully auditable trail of activities and inputs. This will make interpreting each EHCP much quicker, too, since a complete record of professional and parental input will be visible to schools, professionals and parents.

Creating a central record will enable for greater control, ease of access and interpretation of data for everyone concerned. Children with identified SEND necessarily find themselves in a multi-agency scenario, so tying their record together digitally makes interpreting and understanding their journey easier.

This indicates that information sharing regarding identifying SEND beyond the boundaries of administering education support and placement is vital. For example, youth justice practitioners often identify unmet needs and have contextual and relationship information to contribute to a complete view of the child. Having rich information from multiple sources to consider in the SEND process is key to formulating practical support for their journey and enabling their future life achievements.

Technology supporting the single view

“We think the case is clear for all SEND services to move to digital systems for EHCPs. Digital systems can deliver better experiences for both families and professionals and enable them to continuously improve their services – focusing staff time on working with families rather than being hampered by partial understandings and disconnected bureaucracy.”

A number of different system and technology solutions exist across the education domain, so there’s no chance of every authority and school deploying the same software. Where the DfE will want the systems to work better for children is regarding consistency and interoperability.

Most systems have potential to support interoperability for a standard set of data fields curated by the DfE and to communicate with any third-party systems to send and receive as well as extract information. Whilst there are always challenges defining best practice categories through suitable consultation this will be vital in achieving earlier intervention and better SEND outcomes through the EHCP process.

Conclusion

A standardised response to EHCPs will make the entire process more accessible and easier to manage. The response to SEND should not depend upon where you live and the process should be transparent and consistent for everyone.

As a longstanding and experienced provider in the education domain, we have long seen the benefit of extended access to information as well as standards for interoperability with third party software. The ability to send and receive data seamlessly creates more accuracy and efficiency in the multi professional collaborative process that will ultimately benefit of children and families with identified SEND.

Creating a rich, single view of every child can only be beneficial in collating data for understanding behaviours and tracking responses. We too often see information, systems and processes and practitioners siloed and struggling to tackle the challenge of improving outcomes for the diverse needs of all children. So, this intervention from the DfE is welcome and so as a supplier we will be proactive in supporting this.