Welcome to the residential and domiciliary care forum

Reply

Moderator Posted: 5 Sep 2011 11:08 AM

rated by 0 users

Hello

Welcome to CareSpace's newest forum - for people working in residential and domiciliary care.

Feel free to use this forum to post questions or start discussions about any aspect of domicilary or residential care.

Any question, do drop me a line.

Simeon
Community editor

Reply

Big Red Dog replied on 5 Sep 2011 3:08 PM

rated by 0 users

Marvellous idea, thank you!

Reply

tcpm replied on 6 Oct 2011 11:48 AM

rated by 0 users

Hi

My name is Mike I am new to this forum. I am working hard to start my own dom care agency in Bristol and would be very interested to hear from people who are trying to do the same or have recently done so. I have completed my SOP along with many policies and currently writing my business plan which I will submit to CQC in the next few weeks.

I am essentially going to start off as a one man band and hopefully slowly develop into a grown up business. The market is very complex and I would really value your comments particularly if you are going through a similar process or perhaps your 12 months down the road - how are things going

How about winning business, I know it is very competitive via the social services, how about the private market, who is making the money.

Any comments would be of great value

You can email me at                      thecareprojectmanager@gmail.com

Reply

lisaroo replied on 26 Oct 2011 7:52 AM

rated by 0 users

Hi Simeon

I work in dom care and I would like to know is it the law to have mandatory training and should these be updated yearly?

Regards

Lisa

Reply

simeon3 replied on 26 Oct 2011 11:43 AM

rated by 0 users

Hi Lisa

I'm not really an expert in this field but I'm sure one of the other CareSpace members will have an answer for you.

All the best

Simeon

Reply

Big Red Dog replied on 27 Oct 2011 11:41 AM

rated by 0 users

Hi Lisaroo,

Are you working in England or Wales or Scotland etc?

Here's an extract from the CQC's Guidance about Compliance with government standards.

Supporting workers

23.—(1) The registered person must have suitable arrangements in place in order to ensure that 

persons employed for the purposes of carrying on the regulated activity are appropriately 

supported in relation to their responsibilities, to enable them to deliver care and treatment to 

service users safely and to an appropriate standard, including by—

(a) receiving appropriate training, professional development, supervision and appraisal; and

(b) being enabled, from time to time, to obtain further qualifi cations appropriate to the work 

they perform

In my personal experience and opinion that training should - at the very least - include: Manual Handling, Basic First Aid, Food Hygiene, Infection Control and Medication.

I cannot find anything that makes it law for you to receive this training but I hope I am wrong!

Are you happy with the training you have received so far?

Kind Regards,

Emma

Reply

aljewson replied on 7 Nov 2011 1:28 PM

rated by 0 users

Hi,

You have entered the market at a really interesting, fluid time, so all the best for the future.

I used to work for Birmingham, and have had 20+years of procurement experience, spending the last 3 with the authority as a Strategic Market Manager, responsible for Dom Care amongst other things.

I used to get lots of phone calls from people entering the market, who would have the expectation that the local authority could just hand them a block of care packages, which is a shame because it indicates that they didn't do any business research first and have the facts that they should.  I am glad to hear you have a business plan.

I think there is still the expectation that most of the work comes from the local and health authorities, which is a fair observation but I think it is worth pondering on the following:

• Spot contracts and block contracts are not as popular as they used to be because they can be seen as expensive/inefficient, leading to the adoption of better procurement practices and framework contracts.  These framework contracts, although not always designed to, can limit the access to 'new entrants', who may have to wait for a contract anniversary or planned exercise for an opportunity.
• More 'open' tendering and 'directory' approaches allow easy access to the market (which supports the desire to increase 'user choice') but can mean there are more providers competing for limited packages of care (this again is useful for the authority as it ensures VFM, but could put quality at risk).
• There is a large market of self-funders and those who don't get assessed as having substantial or critical needs. However, you will find it difficult to find them unless (in my opinion) you adopt traditional business approaches to marketing and sales generation.  This means that providers will have to spend more (%) of their finance and time on marketing than providers used to.
• The growth and 'push' on Direct Payments and Individual Budgets, increases the power of the individual to make choices of provider. This can be difficult to influence and will depend partly on how authorities present the choice option to their clients, and how effective your marketing is. For example if an authority has a list of contracted providers for home care, that may be the list that is shared with clients, and the conversation goes like:
  • 'Mr S here is a list of agencies we have checked and have a contract with the Council, but you can choose someone else if you wish?'
  • .... I could go on but the same goes with databases or directories of providers that many authorities are using or looking at eg. Stockport, Birmingham.  You have to way up the advantages and risks.
• Local auths are under huge financial pressures and therefore putting a downward pressure on hourly rates and resistant to increases.

So I would suggest that any new provider:

• Build up experience with self-funders and those with Direct Payments.
• Understand how the process in the local authority really works in detail, how are packages distributed, who does what, how is user choice presented. 
• Where are the gaps in provision, and can you fill them?
• Decide on a marketing strategy and budget.
• Obtain tender documents from the local area even if you don't feel ready to follow the process through, they will help you know how to prepare and show you what the authorities are looking for and how they want the service developed.

........... again I could go on but you can get in touch with me at ajewson@ajprocurement.co.uk if you want to continue the conversation. I'm on LinkedIn as well.

Alastair

Reply

noircare replied on 14 Nov 2011 2:19 PM

rated by 0 users

Hi Lisa

I agree with Big Red Dog's comments - and would add that while the CQC (via their Essential Standards of Quality & Safety) state that a *registered* dom care provider should train staff, they no longer really stipulate what training that should be. Rather they refer providers to Skills for Care.

S4C have lots of info on their site about what they think providers should be/have in place in order to meet the CQC's ESQS training requirements. The S4C set out what basic training is mandatory and refer to other organisations etc that set out specific requirements and legislation (e.g. the Health & Safety Executive + legislation for H&S training). They also set out some refresher recommendations/requirements.

Hope that's a help

NC

Reply

jednavicare replied on 9 Dec 2011 11:27 AM

rated by 0 users

Hi Mike, I wonder how you are getting on. On the face of it the outlook is good with demand rising and local authorities realising it is a significant saving to keep in their own home. The key to success is managing costs. The nub of the problem is your greatest cost, people cant be squeezed  without compromising quality. Indeed some of the  recently reported problems in this sector is arguably down to spending too little. As a software company we feel that tight management of your business, designing out errors and greater transparency is the way forward. Specifically we would argue that providing more transparent information, whether it is to carers, relatives or regulators is going to be the hallmark of a business with a good reputation in this sector.