Care homes must maintain staff levels

Existing care homes for both older people and younger adults
must not reduce the staffing levels that were in place at the end
of March over the next 12 months, new guidelines from the National
Care Standards Commission published reveal.

The guidelines for inspectors on the application of regulations
and standards relating to staff levels in care homes state that the
NCSC will assess the needs of residents and look at the staffing
levels required under the previous regulatory regime.

If levels are considered too low, the NCSC “will not hesitate to
place additional staffing requirements on individual
providers”.

For all new applications for registration, the NCSC will use
guidance produced by the residential forum to assess the
suitability of staffing levels, which is based on the estimated
number of care hours required by residents with various levels of
dependency.

Further guidance will be issued by the department of health to
clarify subsequent staffing levels after the initial 12 month
period.

Guidelines on staffing levels in existing care homes from www.carestandards.org.uk