Counsel and Care/NCF: Rewarding staff key to care success

Good leadership and rewarding staff adequately are key to high-quality care for older and disabled people, according to research published today.

The National Care Forum, the umbrella body for voluntary care providers, and Counsel and Care surveyed 210 members of NCF rated much higher than average by the Care Quality Commission.

The report said respondents had invested in managers, including by making links with local universities to form leadership programmes, and set up bespoke training programmes for staff that went beyond NVQ courses.

Rewarding staff key

Providers also placed a premium on rewarding staff, for instance through long service awards and access to health care plans.

However, it warned that providers generally felt the fees they received from local authorities were inadequate, amid rising staff and utility costs.

Other determinants of good care included taking account of the views of service users and their families and fostering relationships between residents and staff, including through having high staff to resident ratios in care homes.

Of the 189 care homes surveyed, 94% were rated as ‘excellent’ (three stars) or ‘good’ (two stars), compared with a national average of 67%. Of the 21 home care providers surveyed, 90.5% had two or three stars, compared with a 64% national average.

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