The home care business is profitable for some, while others struggle to survive. For the past five years, the UK home care sector has been consistently growing by 2.4% per year, outpacing the growth of the economy overall. However rising costs and underfunding pose a persistent challenge.
The growth of the home care sector is driven by demand arising from long-term demographic trends. The number of people in the UK who are over 65 years old is 11 million and rising and it is estimated that by 2030 the number of people with dementia in the UK will exceed 1 million.
Additionally, the NHS is overburdened and the government realises that lack of social care capacity is a key driver of delayed discharges.
By reading this article you will have a better understanding of home care business profits and you will also learn some proven strategies to increase home care agency profit margins.
The 6C’s of care are designed inform the culture and practice of health and social care providers. They comprise of 6 care values for employees, leaders, and organisations working in health and social care. The 6C’s place the interests of patients and service users first and foremost.
In this article we will explore the 6C’s of care, why these care values are important, and how following the 6C’s can shape your policies and procedures to help you to become and remain a high-quality care provider.
How to choose the right software for domiciliary care? If you’re looking for software for your home care service then I’m sure you’re asking this very question right now. Understandably too. There are so many different options, and not much information available in terms of what you should be looking for when comparing different domiciliary care software.
In this article we will cover the key areas you should be looking for when choosing domiciliary care software.
If you are a residential care provider then you should read this article on How To Choose the Right Software for a Care Home instead.
This article covers the six most crucial points you need to consider when choosing software for your home care service/s.
Once you've read it and taken all the points on board, you will be able to make a more informed decision on the right domiciliary care software for you. You will have greater confidence that you're making the best choice, and maximise your Return On Investment.
Do you want to know how to grow your home care business? When it comes to achieving scalable business growth, there is no magic bullet that works. What does work is drawing up a well-thought-out strategy and executing it one step at a time.
At Access we work with thousands of successful home care businesses who have achieved steady and consistent growth over the years.
In this article we will share the most effective strategies we know to help you grow your home care business.
Empowerment in health and social care can be key to the success and happiness of your service users. In life, there are things we can’t control. These situations can make you feel frustrated, powerless and disheartened. Over time, this can chip away at your confidence and self-esteem, leading to negativity and poor decision-making.
We can make decisions and plans because we have personal power and are in control of our own lives, so what about the people you care for?
Socially isolated people, those with poor or declining health or less autonomy can become fearful of positive risk-taking. The frustrations of not being able to do the things they once loved or simple daily tasks can lead to a loss of independence, assurance and self-empowerment. Fortunately, there are things you can do to help promote empowerment and reduce the risk of these feelings developing in your care service.
To gain a deep understanding of empowerment in health and social care you should download this FREE guide: ‘E is for Empowerment & Engagement’. It takes an in-depth look into both subjects and how they work together to improve the quality of care. These guides are a great resource for care workers, managers and leaders in care and are completely free for you to download.
As you can see, we at The Access Group have digitised and worked with care services across the world for a long time, in fact, we started this journey in health and social care 30 years ago. Over time, we've learned exactly what you need to succeed in care. So, we have put this article together to help you fully understand the importance of empowerment in health and social care, what it is, the factors that can affect it and useful empowerment strategies.
In social care, effective communication goes beyond knowledge and expertise to incorporate every aspect of interaction and experience. Care workers need to have the ability to empathise when needed and talk about potentially complicated procedures and issues calmly. Confrontation or disagreements can happen, and the need to defuse these challenging situations is perhaps the most important use of strong communications skills in care.
We previously published an article talking about the importance of staff training in health and social care, but perhaps a more important discussion was had in an article about empowerment in health and social care. Written by my colleague Neoma Toersen, her article discusses the risks inherent from clients losing autonomy and feeling like they no longer have control. This is where effective communication comes in, and can help develop a rapport, build a connection, and allow proper discussion about the wants, wishes and needs of the person receiving care.
In this article we will assess communication in health and social care, with a particular focus on barriers of communication in health and social care and how we can overcome them – with special mention of our eLearning for care software. Our hope is that by reading this article you will have a better understanding of how to navigate not only the base level of conversation with patients or clients, but also the channels of communication and how to best go about engaging with people to make connections, gain insights, and ultimately improve their care.
What is communication in health and social care?
Problems with public sector tendering can be difficult to manage. Digitally transforming processes and investing in brokerage and commissioning software is a good way to overcome these problems, but it can be challenging to know what software is best for your local authority.
If you are a Director, Care Commissioner, Social Worker, or work within the care commissioning cycle in the UK then you will already know the social care challenges have been exacerbated by the pandemic, cost-of-living crisis, and staff shortages. This has made it very difficult for some local authorities to meet demand and commission the care and support needed.
It is not just social care needs that have risen dramatically, local authorities have also seen that housing needs have increased too. With many individuals seeking social or temporary housing, the long waiting lists leave vulnerable people living in unsafe conditions, worsening their health and wellbeing, and increasing their reliance on more health and social care support.
So how are local authorities overcoming these issues? What options are available and what is the difference between brokerage and commissioning software?
Access Adam Care Commissioning is dedicated to empowering local authorities across the UK to optimise their service delivery. Recognizing the increased new responsibilities of our English colleagues, we are committed to ensuring their readiness for the new CQC inspections. In adhering to all applicable legislation and guidance, we facilitate the seamless adaptation of support services to meet evolving demands.
By the end of this article, you will be able to identify the differences between commissioning and brokerage software and the best way these tools can be used to identify which solution is best for your local authority.
The Mental Capacity Act (MCA), Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) are a crucial trio that ensure vulnerable individuals to receive appropriate care while respecting their autonomy. The landscape of care is guided by a framework of legislation to safeguard the rights and well-being of individuals who may lack the capacity to make decisions for themselves.
Fully understanding MCA, DoLS and LPS may be difficult for some. There is a lot of information out there and knowledge and practice are constantly changing. With over 30 years of experience working with thousands of care providers across the country, we at The Access Group know what you need to do to stay compliant while providing outstanding care.
With the help of our experts, we have put together this article that contains everything you need to know about MCA, DoLS and LPS that is easier to interpret and accomplish in your care service. For a more in depth view, you can take a look at our Guide to DoLS: What You Need to Know.
Care home occupancy is a key performance indicator for care homes. As you know, care homes are responsible for providing specialised care to the elderly and people with a wide range of personal care needs and/or medical conditions. The concept of care home occupancy revolves around the number of service users currently residing in a care home and utilising its services versus the overall available capacity of that care home.
Maintaining high occupancy rates is essential for care home providers. Unfilled beds represent lost income potential and with a growing ageing population in the UK, it also means that there are vulnerable people out there who aren’t having their needs met. With over 30 years of experience working with and digitising care services, we at The Access Group know how to help you optimise care home processes and have expertise in applying this to improve care home occupancy rates.
In this article, we will take a look into how to boost occupancy in care homes, the dynamics of care home occupancy, factors that influence it, strategies to increase occupancy and common mistakes to avoid.
The Care Inspectorate grades are used by the Care Inspectorate Scotland. The Care Inspectorate plays a vital role in ensuring the excellence of social care services across the country and they use their own set of guidelines and grading systems to do so. Using their comprehensive grading system, the regulator will evaluate various aspects of a care service and use their findings to rate them. As a result, valuable insights will be provided on the performance of services and the rating will influence their reputation.
With over 30 years of experience digitising care services across the world, we at The Access Group know what your care service needs to do to boost compliance and ensure that the highest quality of care is provided to service users. We’ve put together this article for Scottish service providers to elaborate on the grading criteria and offer tips on how to achieve better grades. We have also put together examples using the inspection reports available at Care Inspectorate Scotland.
