Measure quality of life, say providers

Care home providers have called on the Commission for Social Care
Inspection to put greater emphasis on service users’ quality of
life when assessing operators’ performance.

Most had high hopes the CSCI would improve quality of care and
standards in the sector, according to interviews with senior
executives from 40 major care home providers and trade associations
carried out by the English Community Care Association.

But many said there was a need to move from a process-driven
approach to a performance-driven one, so that the CSCI measured
what was important to the service user in terms of quality of life
rather than taking a “tick box” approach.

They also called for regulators to take a lighter touch with good
quality providers, with fewer inspections and a more co-operative
approach similar to that taken with high performing councils and
hospital trusts.

Most importantly, operators called for the CSCI to demonstrate
greater consistency in applying the national minimum standards for
care homes than its predecessor, the National Care Standards
Commission.

A CSCI spokesperson said its modernisation of the inspection and
regulatory framework was already focused on freeing inspectors from
bureaucracy. “A more consistent approach to applying national
minimum standards will be important to the development of our work
and we will be working with English Community Care Association and
others to take this forward.”

– Improving Lives, Improving Life from www.pgprof.com/uk