Governance

The quality and governance landscape continues to change in the social care sector, and Care UK is at the heart of new initiatives to drive improvement.

Recent changes to the Health and Social Care Act 2008 have seen the introduction of new fundamental standards which are written directly into the regulations. This new move increases the regulatory powers of enforcement and prosecution so that any failures to comply with the standards become a direct breach of the regulations.

A resident’s dignity and safety are paramount to good care and at Care UK we believe that enshrining that in law is the right thing to do. What we are working towards now is ensuring that our managers and their teams fully understand our regulatory duties so that they can incorporate them into their work without losing their confidence and creativity.

We believe that only through empowering home managers and clinical and care teams will we be able to ensure that our homes are consistently improving, and meeting the demands of the new regulatory environment.

What’s more, with these enhanced skills and responsibilities our teams will be well placed to care for an ageing population that includes increasing numbers of people who are living with dementia.

How will we empower our teams?

We have created a new, expanded governance team that consists of governance managers and quality improvement managers who are working with our care home teams to educate and drive quality forward.

At the instigation of the Quality and Governance team, Care UK has become the largest care provider to sign up to Care Homes Wellbeing, a pilot scheme run by the Social Care Improvement Group. Participants can make the most of the tools available to improve safety, systems, working relationships and to create general efficiencies. The idea behind the scheme is that, by working more efficiently, carers will have more time available to spend with residents, improving residents’ daily lives and increasing job satisfaction for carers.