A ‘front-page’ article about the CQC’s annual review has now appeared on the Community Care website, under the headline ‘Regulator warns of growing ‘risk of poor care’ as 1 in 6 nursing homes fail safeguarding standards’.
The article cites some of the reports key observations:-
Among the most commonly failed areas were standards linked to dignity and respect of patients, medicines management and record keeping and poor nutrition.
Rising demand and growing numbers of clients with complex needs is exacerbating staffing problems in the social care sector. Almost a quarter of nursing homes (23%) and 16% of care homes inspected failed to meet standards on staffing levels
Too much care is being delivered in a “task based” rather than “person centred” way with too many providers overseeing a “care culture in which the unacceptable becomes the norm”
Poor staff development was also identified as a significant problem, with many social care services failing “to support staff with proper training, supervision, appraisals and development opportunities”.
The article also reports the (often predictable) reactions of those involved in the care sector, e.g. Ruth Cartwright, England manager at the British Association of Social Workers: “Most community care social workers will have at times had some concerns over the care being offered to their service users by these kind of services. I would hope that they would take that up with the provider, their office, or the CQC. The CQC talk about poor staffing levels and calibre. I think that is linked with financial constraints. All of our owners of care homes and domiciliary care agencies are complaining that the reason they can’t get enough good staff is that they’re not paid enough by local authorities to run the services.”