Contrasting Emotions – CQC’s State of Care Report and The Great British Care Awards.
Last week’s State of Care report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) made headlines for its commentary on the current trends in health and social care services. Whilst showcasing examples of good and outstanding care, and identifying factors that maintain high-quality care, CQC also reported that care services are closing and pressure is increasing on the NHS.
Anyone who understands social care will appreciate its intrinsic value to the smooth-running of NHS services. The current problems in availability and access to social care undoubtedly contribute to increases in Accident and Emergency attendances, emergency admissions, delayed discharges from hospital and overburdened GP surgeries.
Alleviating these areas of acute NHS stress is where homecare and live-in care come into their own, but as a provider in a social care sector challenged to maintain high-quality care we never rest on our laurels. Our most recent CQC report (22 September 2015) rated us as a ‘Good’ service overall (putting us in the 71% of adult social care services rated as ‘Good’ by CQC in the State of Care report), and as ‘Good’ in the two areas CQC have highlighted as being particularly important in services that they have the most confidence in, namely safety and leadership.
We are not perfect, and don’t profess to be so. Indeed, a key feature of the outstanding services highlighted by State of Care is the fact that they don’t consider themselves to have stopped learning or improving. They are constantly evolving to meet the demands placed upon them, and that is what we aspire to do too.
Celebrating success when recognition is offered is important for the under-pressure social care sector though, and for that reason we are immensely proud of one of our care workers, Tashma Brown, who is a regional finalist in the Great British Care Awards 2016 . Tashma has been a carer with us for over 4 years and is a favourite with her clients. But earlier this year she also became a hero. She discovered a fire at a client’s home, helped the client to safety and alerted the emergency services.
Tashma’s quick-thinking and skilled intervention is just one example, in a headline-hitting period for health and social care, of the importance of care and support for older, disabled, and vulnerable people in our communities.