Care home staff fail to understand new standards

Care home staff may be focusing too much on the physical
regulations of the new care standards at the expense of other
aspects of care, according to a survey by the Royal Society for the
Promotion of Health.

The survey of 150 care home staff finds that while many
understood the new regulations on lifts, bedroom sizes and ensuite
bathrooms, fewer were aware of the new regulations about meals.

Almost 90 per cent did not fully understand standard 15 under
which service users must be offered three full meals each day, at
least one of which must be cooked, at intervals of not more than
five hours.

Society chief executive Hugh Lowson said that it is easy to see
why care homes were worried about the “big budget items”, which are
going to be difficult to comply with.

“But not all the new standards are expensive and difficult to
implement,” he said. “Some of the least costly may be the very
ones, which make the most difference to residents. We hope that
these will not be ignored while staff focus on the more high
profile problems,” he said.