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Leader’s spotlight – Sarah Clarke-Kuehn on how Sanctuary Care enriches lives CT on the road – WCS Care leads the way in dementia care Healthcare Summit 2022 – We round up the highlights
February 2023
Renaissance Care’s Robert Kilgour identifies fundamental differences in social care between Scotland and England and warns that dark clouds developing north of the border may be a sign of things to come.
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Chief operating officer Sarah Clarke-Kuehn explains how Sanctuary Care enriches lives of residents and staff
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Founder, chairman and chief executive Laurence Geller explains how Loveday & Co is helping to pioneer new dementia care technologies
8 COVER STORY
Renaissance Care’s Robert Kilgour identifies fundamental differences in social care between Scotland and England and warns that dark clouds developing north of the border may be a sign of things to come
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Jonathan Freeman, group sustainability director at CareTech on reducing your carbon footprint
EDITORIAL
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It’s been a sad case of déjà vu to watch another winter crisis unfold in the NHS this year with A&E waiting lists soaring, nurses and ambulance workers striking and Covid-19 and flu adding to pressure on hospital beds.
In typical knee-jerk fashion, the government looked to care homes to bail out the NHS from the crisis by offering up to £250 million to fund thousands of short-term, step-down placements.
Care homes have been called on to help prop up the NHS despite suffering their own recruitment and retention challenges as the sector continues to be treated as the Cinderella service.
On the positive side, the emergency call to care homes has once again highlighted their crucial role and the interdependence of health and social care. The worst bedblocking crisis in memory in the NHS has largely been due to a lack of available care packages caused by the staffing crisis in social care. As a result, thousands of vulnerable people continue to lie in hospital beds because they’ve nowhere else to go.
Furthermore, the NHS crisis has once
again brought into stark relief the need for a fair, long-term funding settlement for social care, with the sector calling for minimum weekly fees of £1,500 to match the cost of care of taking in hospital discharges.
While we continue to lurch from crisis to crisis due to the government’s shorttermist approach to health and social care, the latest meltdown has at least highlighted, again, the dependence of the NHS on a well-functioning social care system and brought into the public arena how much good-quality care actually costs.
With local authorities expected to publish the results of their cost of care exercises this month, despite the government having again kicked reforms into touch, the NHS crisis has underscored the urgent need to tackle the social care staffing crisis immediately –and get long-term reforms of the system back on track.
Lee Peart Editor-in-chief Caring Times
Up to £250 million is to be provided to the NHS to buy thousands of extra beds in care homes and other settings to free up hospital beds. The announcement followed an emergency meeting between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and NHS leaders last month.
Care England, the representative body for care providers in England, called for weekly fees of at least £1,500 to fund hospital discharges to care homes.
The Scottish government announced funding of at least £8 million for additional care home beds to ease hospital pressure this winter. The measure was announced by the Scottish government’s cabinet secretary for health and social care Humza Yousaf, following the UK government’s action in England earlier.
New strike dates in February were announced by nurses in England and Wales after negotiations broke down. The Royal College of Nursing said strike action would be escalated on 6 and 7 February due to the government’s refusal to “seriously
negotiate”. Ambulance workers announced 10 strike dates in February and March.
Lib Dem health spokesperson Daisy Cooper said the use of private brokers to find care homes for hospital discharges is a “scandalous situation”. Cooper’s comments came after The Guardian reported private brokers were earning millions finding care home beds for the NHS and local authorities.
Free PPE for front line health and care staff has been extended by a year until 31 March 2024 or until stocks are depleted. The scheme is designed to provide protection for front line staff against Covid as part of the government’s ‘Living with Covid’ strategy.
Hospitals in Bristol, Devon and Cornwall have begun discharging patients into ‘care hotels’ to help ease winter pressures. The BBC reported NHS Devon had block-booked 40 beds at the Leonard Hotel in Plymouth, 10 of which are to be used by patients from Cornwall.
ivolve Group, formerly known as Envivo Group, relaunched with a new larger family of social care providers in addition to its acquisition of Cavendish Care. ivolve Care and Support has also integrated existing providers Heathcotes, New Directions and TLC Care and Support under the ivolve Group name, offering residential accommodation to 1,100 adults with learning disabilities, mental health needs and associated complex care.
for you. Now in its 10th year the event features a CPD accredited speaker programme, wide range of care exhibitors, experiences and training you won’t find anywhere else, and provides a great opportunity to learn, discover new solutions, and further your professional skills.
For more information and to book tickets visit www.alzheimersshow.co.uk
Staff and residents at a Buckinghamshire care home celebrated after receiving an Outstanding rating from the CQC. Westgate Healthcare’s Byron House Care Home in Aylesbury achieved Outstanding in three out of five categories following an inspection in November.
Runwood Homes appointed Phil Thomas as group chief financial officer. Thomas, who was most recently chief financial officer at Four Seasons Health Care, has worked in social care in senior roles for many years.
Not-for-profit provider of older people’s housing and care, Anchor, appointed Amanda Holgate as chief financial officer. Holgate has worked in the housing sector for more than eight years, first as deputy finance director at Family Mosaic and then as director, finance services at Peabody. She joined Southern Housing Group as chief financial officer in 2019.
If you’re involved in caring for others, the Alzheimer’s Dementia & Care Show is
Robert Kilgour, founder and executive chairman of Renaissance Care, identifies fundamental differences in social care between Scotland and England but warns that dark clouds developing north of the border may be a sign of things to come in the south.
As we all take a deep breath, steady ourselves and get ready to battle on into what we all know is going to be an incredibly tough and challenging 2023, I want to take a moment to focus on some of the fundamental differences in social care between Scotland and England, particularly in funding and staffing since devolution and the establishment of the Scottish Parliament. The sector south of the border may not be aware of some of these differences and also of some worrying dark Scottish clouds circling ready to unload more misery on the care home sector up north. These clouds may provide food for thought in England regarding the possible direction of travel of the Westminster government and the English regulator, the Care Quality Commission.
A recent calculation of the make-up of care home beds in Scotland showed 85% independent and voluntary sector, 11% local authorities and 4% NHS. In addition, we have our own equivalent of the CQC in Scotland called the Care Inspectorate which carries out exactly the same role.
This article does not address the recent large cost increases in so many basic essential items, insurance and energy, the wholesale sector staff shortages, and the overall funding and banking pressures hitting our sector really hard just now, because we’re all struggling with these wherever we are in the UK. These issues are quite rightly getting plenty of attention and coverage elsewhere.
Nurse bursaries (non-income-assessed) in Scotland are currently £10,000 per annum, paid monthly throughout the course (£7,500 in final shorter fourth year) with other further possible financial assistance available depending on individual circumstances. The current annual tuition fees in Scotland are officially £1,820, although most
Scottish nursing students do not seem to have to pay for tuition fees, unlike in England where the tuition fees are also much higher. In England, the equivalent maintenance grant figure is £5,000 per annum, but there is a possible extra £1,000 per annum if you plan on working in an area suffering from severe shortages, which include mental health, and there are also some possible childcare allowances and there’s also a small additional meanstested element.
In Scotland, we have the Scottish Carers Living Wage (first introduced in 2016) which is paid to all staff in a caring role who are aged 18 or over. It is currently £10.50 an hour (likely to go up to at least £10.90 in April) as opposed to the current National Living Wage for 23-yearolds and above which is £9.50 an hour (excluding London) and which is going up to £10.42 an hour from April. In addition, the (Scottish) National Care Home Contract (more about this shortly) states that all staff aged over 18 employed in whatever role in a care home are paid a minimum rate of £9.90 an hour – another rate that will go up in April.
We have free personal care in Scotland (first introduced in 2002) where free
personal and/or nursing care is available to all adults over 65 years old who have been assessed by the local authority as eligible for these services. You can generally get this support regardless of age, income, capital assets, or marital or civil partner status once you are deemed eligible by your local council.
The National Care Home Contract (NCHC) in Scotland was first established by COSLA (the Scottish local authorities organisation) in 2006/07 as the model contract (updated and renewed annually) where all the detailed terms and conditions are set out and this is used by all Scottish local authorities for the purchase of care home places for publicly funded clients throughout Scotland. The current NCHC nursing care fee rate is £832.10 a week and the residential care fee rate is £719.50. However, it’s worth noting here that absolutely no ‘top ups’ to these fees are allowed by the NCHC, except in exceptional circumstances.
(A recent freedom of information request showed that Scottish local authorities’ owned care homes were costing the taxpayer an average of 50% more in weekly fees than the figures outlined above – and we’ve been campaigning long and hard for many years for a ‘level playing field’ on fees between sectors – and for private
owners to be paid nearer to the true cost of care.)
In addition to the impending Scottish Covid-19 public inquiry, the Care Inspectorate recently tried to introduce some changes to maximum care home size. Its plan was that the maximum care home size allowed would be 60 registered beds, for new registrations and on the sale of existing registered homes. It also planned to increase minimum bedroom sizes significantly and increase other general requirements. These changes seem currently to be parked, but probably not for long, despite the combined
impact of these changes making over 90% of Scottish care homes noncompliant and difficult to sell or even to refinance.
The Scottish government’s plans to introduce a National Care Service are not all bad in principle. However, they have rightly hit huge opposition and objections from practically every stakeholder involved as the plans remain very short of detail on the likely costs and practicalities, so it’s not yet possible to give a fair and reasonable opinion – watch this space.
Another dark storm cloud to watch out for is a planned Scottish Workplace Parking Levy (similar to that operated in Nottingham for several years) largely courtesy of the Green Party which is currently in coalition government with the SNP. NHS and hospice premises will apparently be exempt, but not it seems care homes – another sad example of NHS first and social care second.
Bed-blocking is a UK-wide problem affecting our sector and the Scottish government recently announced
£8 million extra funding for NHS Scotland to directly fund hospital discharges to care homes or for home care packages – a good start but much more will be needed to make a real impact in this vital and problematic area for both NHS Scotland and Scottish social care.
As an avid Scottish rugby union supporter, I am ever the optimist and am generally a glass half-full person about most things in life, including the future of our great social care sector and the amazing staff that work tirelessly round the clock at the front line caring for their ‘second families’, so it isn’t all bad. And to end on a positive note – at Renaissance Care where we currently operate 16 care homes throughout Scotland with close to 1,200 staff, our number one priority continues to be the health, safety and wellbeing of all the vulnerable elderly in our care, as well as of all our incredible hard working and dedicated staff –truly our greatest asset.
“We’ve been campaigning long and hard for many years for a ‘level playing field’ on fees between the sectors.”
Robert Kilgour
Chief operating officer Sarah Clarke-Kuehn explains to Lee Peart how Sanctuary Care’s Enriching Lives framework helps deliver high-quality, person-led care to residents while enabling staff to feel valued and fulfilled.
The Enriching Lives framework came about because we wanted to commit to ensuring that our vision and values were more than just words,” Clarke-Kuehn says. “We really wanted to see our mission of enriching lives as that golden thread that runs through everything we do. It has to become central to how we engage with all our residents, their families and, equally as importantly, how we treat our teams.”
Based on research by Sheffield University academic Mike Nolan in 2006, the framework is based around fulfilling the six enriching life senses of: security, belonging, continuity, a sense of purpose, achievement and significance.
“It gives us a common vocabulary and understanding of how we can articulate to people what enriching lives means for our staff, their residents and their families,” Clarke-Kuehn says.
enriched life, in their move-in pack.
“It explains how a sense of security means to feel safe, belonging and part of something with a sense of continuity,” Clarke-Kuehn says. “We need to make sure they can carry on with the things that are important to them. People need to have a sense of purpose and maintain their personal goals and a sense of achievement. We need to keep asking how we can make people progress towards those goals and have a sense of significance.”
Scotland on what had helped them to achieve their six senses.
“The new research helped cement what we already knew and enabled us to develop our feedback mechanisms because that’s so important when you are trying to deliver the highest-quality care and enrich the lives of residents,” Clarke-Kuehn says.
Embedding the framework into the lives of residents starts at the beginning of their care journey.
“It’s part of our move-in process and that then helps us to work with the residents and their families to ensure that we really understand who they are so that they get the best quality of life that is truly tailored to their individual needs,” the chief operating officer says.
Each resident is given a summary of the framework, including Sanctuary Care’s commitment to helping them to live an
In 2021 Sanctuary Care commissioned Research Works to gather residents’ views in England and
“The survey has also allowed us to put the Enriching Lives framework into our care reviews so that we have conversations with our residents and their families about what’s important to them.
“It really is about going beyond the highest-quality level of care. It’s almost taking person-centred care to the next level to ‘person-led care’ so that the resident is driving the things that they want because they are important to them and are tailored and specific to them.”
Clarke-Kuehn highlights some “amazing examples” of how staff had helped residents live enriched lives by achieving things that are important to them.
“It gives us a common vocabulary and understanding of how we can articulate to people what enriching lives means for our staff, their residents and their families”
“At Ravenhurst we have a retired music teacher who has started her own choir because that sense of continuity was so important to her and she wanted to achieve and have some significance,” she notes. “That continuation of the significance of creating a choir and this beautiful musical presence in one of our homes was so amazing to see.”
In another example, a resident at a care home in Castlecroft in the West
Midlands was able to regain his passion for rugby after staff helped him to become a coach and chair of a local junior team.
Throughout Sanctuary’s care homes residents who are keen gardeners have been able to become garden assistants. “They now have a purpose and a sense of continuity and achievement,” Clarke-Kuehn notes. A ‘Grow it, cook it’ programme has been a big hit with residents since its launch in mid-2022.
“We have been getting residents who have a passion for gardening and cooking out helping us grow vegetables and be involved in the meal experience,” Clarke-Kuehn says. “They’ve been able to cook meals with our chefs and have been able to enjoy and celebrate this achievement as a collective home. They have grown it, eaten it and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.”
In another example, Sanctuary Care granted a resident’s wish to have his
own purpose-built gym.
“The gym was originally intended for him and his use, but we have more residents and even staff members using it now, so it was a way that they have all really come together,” Clarke-Kuehn says. “Staff spent time getting to know that one resident and what was really important to him, as well as using the gym to enrich more people’s lives.”
Food and nutrition is a further core component of delivering the highestquality care to residents.
“We’ve got some fantastic chefs and catering staff and being involved in the whole experience of delivering, creating and eating food together has such an important ethos in terms of creating a sense of belonging and significance for all our residents,” Clarke-Kuehn says.
The lives of staff are also enriched through an annual MasterChef competition where the provider’s talented chefs come together to show >
“At Ravenhurst we have a retired music teacher who has started her own choir because that sense of continuity was so important to her and she wanted to achieve and have some significance.”
off their culinary skills.
“That recognition of how good they are among their peer group shows we appreciate them and gives them such purpose and significance in the role they play in our care homes,” ClarkeKuehn says.
Enriching Lives has also given Sanctuary Care a framework for supporting staff through their wellbeing, recognition, job satisfaction and career development.
“It plays a really crucial part in having the best staff you can possibly have,” Clarke-Kuehn explains.
“One of the benefits of being a notfor-profit is we have a huge opportunity to reinvest in our employees in terms of training and development.”
The not-for-profit is also focused on providing support for the wellbeing and mental resilience of staff. The business has partnered with a mental health guru on mental health resilience training which has already been offered to around 1,500 staff.
“We also have an employee assistance programme for people who need help with legal or CBT [cognitive behavioural therapy] mental health issues,” Clarke-Kuehn adds.
Further support is provided in the area of learning and development.
“We have a fantastic learning and development offering and career pathways with nationally recognised qualifications so that if people want to develop the opportunities are there,” Clarke-Kuehn says.
The chief operating officer says Sanctuary offers a “really competitive package with sick pay, life insurance and contributory pensions” as well as a new clinical strategy which encourages everyone within a care home to look at development opportunities in a clinical pathway.
“We have a whole home approach in terms of being able to support everybody in terms of their career aspirations,” Clarke-Kuehn says.
The chief operating officer adds that all staff are paid well above the National Minimum Wage.
With more than 7,000 staff ClarkeKuehn says Sanctuary Care is “not immune” from the current recruitment crisis facing the sector, but notes that recruitment and retention is better than the sector average.
“I do think that is due to our ethos and our values,” Clarke-Kuehn says. “Enriching Lives is part of that ethos and those values. We’re able to reinvest in fantastic rest rooms and opportunities for our staff to look after their wellbeing. Care is a fantastically rewarding job, but it is also a hard job and we have to be honest.
“That ethos of looking after our staff as we look after our residents really resonates with them. We offer competitive terms and conditions and feel we have gone that bit further on our development offers and career pathways and access to qualifications.”
Technology is a further core
With more than 7,000 staff Clarke-Kuehn says Sanctuary Care is “not immune” from the current recruitment crisis facing the sector, but notes that recruitment and retention is better than the sector average.
component in how Sanctuary Care enriches the lives of residents and staff. The not-for-profit has invested a “significant amount” in tech in recent years, including the roll-out of its own, bespoke electronic care planning system.
“Technology is really important to Sanctuary Care,” Clarke-Kuehn notes. “We have always had a technologyled desire. I want our staff to be spending time with residents, not doing paperwork, and delivering the quality care you can deliver when you are on the ground and engaging.
“If we can make the admin simple, straightforward and interlinked, we can
allow our staff to spend more time with residents and make sure that golden thread of enriching lives goes through everything.”
The chief operating officer says Sanctuary is in the “early stages” of trialling the interaction of its care planning system with Atlas emar software.
The not-for-profit has also invested in magic tables featuring interactive light games to provide physical and mental stimulation for residents living with dementia.
Looking ahead, the chief operating officer says it is important for providers to continue to play their role in
promoting the career opportunities available in the sector. “There’s a positivity about all providers talking about a career in care rather than it just being a job,” she says.
“That’s the message we have to get out there. You can join as a care assistant and work your way up through the career paths. You may change your career paths. You might start on a nonclinical pathway and complete a nurse associate programme and qualify as a nurse.
“There are huge opportunities in care for a career if that’s what you want, or you can be the best care assistant you ever want to be. People will find their own opportunities in Sanctuary Care whether that’s as a career or being the best person they can be in that particular job.”
With 60% of Sanctuary Care’s homes funded by 47 local authorities, Clarke-Kuehn acknowledges the current challenging funding climate, but adds the not-for-profit is still able to maintain a level of investment she is proud of.
“We will find out about fee levels for the coming year in March,” the chief operating officer notes.
“We want to deliver high-quality care, so we need to see a long-term trajectory for that and we are working really closely with our local authorities to make sure that we all understand the appropriate level of cost and fee for delivering high-quality care.
“We need a certainty so that we can plan and ensure that we are reinvesting and building new properties. Everybody is looking for that longerterm direction. It’s an incredibly difficult time for everybody at the moment.
“There are lots of pulls on the government purse strings. For me, we need a sense of direction. We need that five-year plan and we need it delivered because there are some incredible providers out there who can work to deliver the solution. We need to have the vision and then we can make it work.
“ICSs have to work and social care has to be at the right place for that integrated care solution to work whether that’s at an ICB, ICP or ICS level. Providers need to be at those tables.”
A new report has called for an immediate pay rise for the social care workforce and pay parity with the NHS.
Unfair To care’ has been developed by Community Integrated Care, one of Britain’s biggest social care charities, in partnership with global job evaluation consultancy, Korn Ferry.
The report found social care workers would need a 41% pay rise (more than £8,000) to achieve parity with their NHS equivalents, which on current investment levels would take 23 years to achieve.
Social care vacancies are currently rising by an unprecedented 52% this year with 165,000 roles available at any one time.
from the CQC Market Oversight Scheme predicting an acceleration of unviable local authority contracts being cancelled.
The report notes the social care workforce enjoys strong backing from the general public with 85% saying staff shortages are a problem for society, 91% thinking social care is important to society and 90% of the public classifying the sector as skilled.
The report calls on the government to give an immediate and fair pay rise to all front line social care workers and highlights the need to apply the NHS Agenda for Change framework, which provides a system of pay bands for workers based upon skill, accountability and experience, to ensure fair pay across these symbiotic systems.
Teresa Exelby, chief people officer at Community Integrated Care, said: “Now, in the midst of an unprecedented cost of living crisis, it is clearer than ever that this position is as untenable as it is immoral. We are calling on the government to invest in social care now, to apply NHS terms and conditions in this parallel sector. When delivered alongside other progressive reforms, it will be making its rhetoric of levelling up an absolute reality in the most profound of ways.”
The average support worker in England is paid £10.01 an hour outside London – 89p an hour below the Real Living Wage. With an annual salary of £19,573, support workers’ pay falls well short of the NHS Band 3 average take-home total pay of £27,609, when accounting for NHS entitlements, including sick pay and pension benefits.
The report highlights that social care pay has tracked above the percentage increases in minimum wage rises for the first time in four years, increasing by 8.2% compared to the National Living Wage increase of 6.6%, but warns that providers are stretching themselves financially to fund these rises.
Four in five (80%) providers believe their income will not fully cover wages, with further research
It also recommends a significant expansion of training and development options, a focus on creating routes to career progression, the introduction of professional registration, campaigns to raise the esteem of the sector, investment in mental health support, and wellbeing strategies.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are incredibly grateful to our social care workforce and recognise their extraordinary commitment. That’s why we prioritised social care in the Autumn Statement, providing up to £7.5 billion over the next two years to support social care services and discharge which will help local authorities address waiting lists, low fee rates, and workforce pressures in the sector.
“We have also launched our annual domestic recruitment campaign, Made With Care, to encourage people to take up a career in adult social care and are investing £15 million to increase international recruitment into the sector.”
Chief people officer at Community Integrated Care, Teresa Exelby, argues a National Care Service would create a sense of accountability for the sector and help to provide a fair wage for workers.
“My ideal would be that social care income didn’t go through local government but that there was a National Care Service that took accountability rather than constantly going through different mechanisms and systems,” Exelby told Caring Times in the wake of Community Integrated Care’s ‘Unfair to care’ report in December.
“The inefficiency in that system is enormous and costs a load of money.”
Exelby called for a full system review of social care, but added that people in the sector should be paid properly immediately.
“That’s a much longer-term piece so in the meantime funding does need to go through local authorities and a minimum rate for social care needs to be put in place and they need to be funded to be able to deliver that.”
In the longer term, the chief people officer said that while “not perfect” current plans for a National Care Service in Scotland would create a system that is accountable and establish standards for sector-wide pay and training.
“Exelby called for a full system review of social care, but added that people in the sector should be paid properly immediately.”
“We need some sense of a national system that is end-to-end as opposed to something which is incredibly fragmented,” Exelby said. “It has to be simpler and more efficient and drive better-quality outcomes.
“Pay is at the heart of this but there is so much to do around creating a sector that is aspirational from a career perspective, where progression and promotion is something that is celebrated and where people can have
really clear career paths. We are on a constant treadmill of reacting to the crisis in front of us rather than being able to build for the future.”
Community Integrated Care, which helps people with care needs live in the community, as well as providing residential homes for people with learning difficulties and a range of disabilities, currently pays its workers at 50 pence above the minimum wage in Scotland and England.
“We are covering the cost of those rates through our own reserves,” Exelby said. “We made a £3 million deficit last year and probably will look to do the same this year. That isn’t sustainable for a charity.”
Looking ahead, Exelby said Community Integrated Care would continue to campaign for a fair wage for workers on its own behalf or through organisations such as the National Care Forum, the Future Coalition for Social Care or VODG.
“When we hear about people striking for pay, social care is just silent,” Exelby said. “It’s our job to not let it be silent and do all we can to amplify that message.
“We are part of a shared system with the NHS and are partners in that system,” Exelby said. “For that system to work there has to be a level of balance for it to be stable. I don’t see the level of imbalance anywhere else that we currently have.”
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The business property advisor reported a 14-year high in the level of demand and volume of care homes transacted by its care team in 2022, with 42% more deals brokered than in 2021. At the launch of the report, global managing director Darren Bond said care was one of the company’s strongest markets, along with childcare and education and the dental market.
‘Business outlook 2023: finding clarity’, makes a number of predictions for the year ahead. These include:
• Demand for good-quality assets and general buyer sentiment will remain strong
• The trend of an increasing number of operators taking leases is likely to continue
• Sale and leaseback finance will continue to underpin a notable number of transactions, although yields may soften as a consequence of wider macroeconomic factors
• Occupancy should fully return to prepandemic levels by year-end
• Workforce challenges and cost inflation are likely to remain as the two key operational headwinds
• More signs of distress will likely emerge, particularly for smaller olderstyle assets which are reliant on local authority funding
• Further transactional activity in the operating company market. The report reveals interest from a range of buyers, including a number of new European organisations looking either to enter the UK market or increase their presence. Last year, 48% of Christie & Co’s care deals were concluded to buyers located more than 100 miles from the target business, up 19% since 2015. Corporate investors accounted for 33% of Christie & Co completions in 2022, up from 22% in 2018.
Richard Lunn, managing director, care at Christie & Co, said: “The sector continues to be impacted by cost pressures and workforce issues – challenges not unique to care – yet 2022 demonstrated, yet again, the strength of both the sector and the market itself, as we saw record levels of demand and transaction volumes last year along with strong pricing. We remain optimistic for the year ahead that, despite headwinds, the care sector and its fantastic workforce will thrive.”
As part of its annual price index, Christie & Co notes a 2.7% increase in pricing in 2022, which reflects a strong appetite
for care, although this is tempered by increased interest rates, capital costs and operational costs.
Last year the number of closed care homes transactions decreased, accounting for 13% of Christie’s deals. Four out of every five vacant care homes were bought by care home providers. Where the sale was for ongoing use, larger homes were generally sold to elderly care providers looking to reposition the care home in the market, and smaller homes were often acquired by specialist care providers and supported living operators.
“The vast majority of transactions have gone to existing operators, people who understand the sector and believe in its long-term future,” said Lunn.
Christie’s own research found 30% of respondents were looking to buy in 2023, 26% to sell, and 7% to both buy and sell. When asked about their sentiment for the year ahead opinion was split down the middle, with 34% feeling positive, 34% feeling negative and 32% feeling neutral.
The care home market is set to thrive in 2023, with strong buyer demand for good-quality assets, according to Christie & Co’s annual Business Outlook report.Percentage of corporate investor completions
With its expanding range of high-end care homes offering dementia specialist care in London, Loveday & Co is researching, trialing and adopting new innovative technologies.
Its recently launched Abbey Road care home is typical in offering innovative assistive technologies such as electronic care planning, pain assessment, medicine management, nurse call and acoustic monitoring systems, circadian lighting, falls prevention and continence sensors, and anti-bacterial technologies.
“I believe we have to invest completely and constantly in technology whether it is for us or it’s for other people because we are a small enough unit and have such a high staffing level that we can act as researchers,” Geller says. “If somebody wants to trial something we can do the measurements for them and the follow up.”
Geller has partnered with the University of West London, University of Stirling Dementia Services Development Centre and University of Roehampton on technologies that discreetly, yet dynamically, enhance people’s wellbeing, as well as co-founding the Westmont Enterprise Hub which encourages and incentivises innovation and start-ups.
He has also been asked by the government to lead the development of guidelines, research, innovation and technology for preventing and mitigating concussive impacts, which can damage the brain in sport, and which one day could also be rolled out in care homes.
“We will be able to measure every resident with a brain monitor when they
come in and do their initial assessment and see whether they are deteriorating or not,” Geller explains. “That’s the sort of predictive analysis we intend to do.”
Geller highlights the use of biometric sensors that indicate abnormal heart rates, blood pressure and other matters as another area of predictive research being pioneered at Loveday & Co.
While acknowledging technology as a great enabler, Geller stresses it can never replace the core human element of care.
“I don’t think it can replace human judgement because we are all different,” the care home leader notes.
Geller identifies AI and robotics as demonstrating how technology can enhance but not replace human care.
“AI is going to be great, but at this stage to take away the need for me providing hands-on human care.”
He adds, however, that AI pain measurement is one area where technology can do things that humans can’t.
“A human cannot be as consistent as AI for measuring that type of thing,” Geller says. “Where the human comes in is where they take the pain assessment and interpret it, find anomalies and discover what’s causing it. AI can’t do that. You can’t yet
get to the cause, but you can get to a reason to investigate the cause.”
Looking forward to what will be key to the successful roll-out of digital care in the future, Geller identifies staff training and sorting out the issue of who pays –whether that be government, families or the care provider.
With weekly fees of £3,000 upwards and an enviable EBITDARM profit margin of more than 40%, Geller says he was able and willing to invest millions in dementia research and technology but noted other providers may not be so fortunate, or so inclined.
“Our secret ingredient isn’t just technology – it’s people and passion and we have the time to do it and I am going to invest the money to try it,” Geller says.
“The University of West London is trying to take what we are doing and codify it for roll-out elsewhere. We can do it as a high-end and philanthropic care home operator, but whether you can do it on fees of £700 to £800, I just don’t know.
“We need a holistic and multidimensional national policy tasked with developing and implementing a bold, innovative and creative plan that pioneers technological advances and systems.”
Sam Hussain, founder and chief executive at Log my Care, explores how change management techniques can be used to help care teams embrace digitalisation.
Local integrated care systems (ICSs) have been tasked with distributing a portion of the £150 million pledged by the government to drive digitalisation among adult social care providers. While giving away money might sound easy, at present 60% of care providers are still using paper-based records and with digital care records not yet mandatory, many of them aren’t ready to change.
While it may be a daunting prospect, digitalisation brings a host of benefits for care providers and the people they support. A shared care record enabling the flow of information between health and social care is on the government’s agenda – allowing for better continuity of care when people inevitably transfer from one to the other. Digitalisation also gives care providers much-needed oversight, allows them to evidence the support they’re providing to inspectors and helps keep family members in the loop. The data collected will pave the way for a future of care that’s predictive, with tailored health and social care services available in each area to meet the population’s needs.
“Digitalisation also gives care providers much-needed oversight, allows them to evidence the support they’re providing to inspectors and helps keep family members in the loop. ”
While digitalisation is on the horizon, our conversations with ICSs highlight the barriers social care still needs to overcome. Care providers are in no rush to take advantage of the funding, because they don’t know if their staff will be happy using digital systems. And during a recruitment crisis in care, that’s understandable. To work with ICSs on
overcoming this barrier, we teamed up with change management expert, Guided Innovation. Here are six tips for keeping teams happy and making organisationwide change.
The Kübler Ross change curve model was created by the Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in 1969. It depicts five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. However, this model can also be used to understand the emotional turmoil a team may undergo when faced with a big change like digitalisation.
Care providers can use the change curve model to understand the feelings their teams may be having and combat them by offering reassurance, listening to their concerns, providing training and celebrating successes when digitalisation is embraced.
Establishing a steering group made up of different people from across an organisation is key to making effective change. This should be made up of the doubters and the digital gurus to give everyone a chance to air their grievances and fears about going digital.
The group gives staff an opportunity to discuss what they don’t like about the current system, what isn’t working well and what could be improved. Once that’s all out in the open, the digital gurus can start painting a picture of how much better and easier things will be with a digital system in place.
Senior leadership can be a blocker when it comes to people opening up and being honest – the easiest way to fix this is to ensure they don’t sit on a steering group. Instead, give members of the steering group power to make decisions and accountability. Using this, they can suggest ways of improving current processes.
It’s hard to over-communicate when it comes to a big change like going digital. Team members should be updated regularly, in every way possible. They should know where the organisation is on its digital journey and be given opportunities to get involved.
This is an opportunity for bright stars to shine. These should be people who are interested, positive and want to shout about digitalisation. They should be approachable to all staff and be amenable to questions. Those who take part should be rewarded – with pay or other benefits like enhanced annual leave, flexible working or opportunities for development.
Change may be difficult but digitalisation doesn’t have to be. This can be a real opportunity for teams to come together and achieve something wonderful. Celebrate the successes – plan quick-win practice sessions for your team, show them how easy the change to digital could be and celebrate those wins as they become a reality.
We talk to directors, owners, senior management and managers, and report across the care sector.
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are disappointed, but the delay buys councils valuable time to stabilise the system and the government time to analyse the costs of these reforms.
What does the 5% increase in council tax mean for adult social care across the country? Will it cause disparities in the quality of social care as some have predicted?
It means that councils have another lever to pull in terms of raising revenue across the country with local authorities having made use of the social care precept over the last few years.
What does the proposed £2.8 billion increase in funding for the adult social care sector mean for local authorities?
This funding, on top of retaining £1.3 billion for the social care reforms this year, will give councils the means to help address inflationary pressures in 2022-23, meaning that truly unpalatable decisions over tightening eligibility for care services or reducing services can be avoided. It will allow councils to commission more care packages to address demand, stabilise services in the short term, and work with health partners to improve hospital discharge rates. However, it should not be seen as a panacea and particular funding challenges remain, as well as the overall accessibility to care services for people in county areas.
Do you believe the chancellor’s decision to delay recommendations in the Dilnot report, including the social care cap, was a good decision for local authorities?
It is. My fellow county leaders from across the country and I support the principle of the government’s reforms, but the County Councils Network
released two reports this year that showed that the government’s proposed charging reforms have been substantially underestimated, which could have led to widespread provider failure. In addition, inflationary costs last year could add £3.7 billion to councils’ care costs in 2022-23.
Faced with these challenges, it would have been a recipe for disaster to have implemented the reforms that are planned in October 2023. We understand some in the sector
While council tax raises more funding in different parts of the country, it’s too simplistic to say this will cause disparities in the quality of care. Areas that can raise more in council tax also receive less in direct government funding. Overall, those areas with the highest social care needs will receive higher amounts of overall funding.
How likely are councils to implement the 5% increase? What would the barriers to implementing it be?
I can’t speak for what colleagues will be doing across the country, but I know they will be taking into consideration cost of living pressures for residents and balancing this against their financial challenges in setting a balanced budget.
Dr Ruth Allen, chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers sets out her thoughts to William Walter, on the chancellor’s decision to raise council tax to fund social care and to delay the social care cap.
When chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in his Autumn Statement that the social care funding cap would be postponed for two years until after the next election, that the Kwarteng reversal on National Insurance rises would be retained and that councils would have more freedom to raise local council taxes, we knew we were hearing a Budget devoid of ideas on how to tackle the deep strategic and systemic problems we have in social care. Again.
Postponing the care cap was clearly an unjust blow to people planning near future finances around the cap coming in. And there were many leaders who strongly felt the care cap change would at least show high level change can happen after years of stasis.
But in parts of social care there was a sigh of relief at the delay given the eye-watering workload pressures in local authorities. This is the reality of social care now; not enough money, not enough staff to recruit; not enough
experienced staff staying; too many providers pulling out; inflation eating into care costs and making pay even more paltry for so many workers (overwhelmingly women) working in the many vital roles of social care.
Hunt did announce some new money – £2.8 billion in 2023/24 and £4.7 billion in cash terms for social care. Some is coming from new government grants; a lot is recycled out of the postponed implementation of the cap and more (an unknown amount) may be raised from council taxes. It sounds a lot, but it isn’t enough according to all credible gap analyses and, perhaps even more importantly, it’s a temporary uplift when all parts of the system need long-term financial and workforce planning. The latter was promised by Hunt, but when and with what likelihood will the government see this through?
The primary purpose of the additional social care money is to speed up the discharge of people from hospital – to ‘free up’ the NHS. Important as discharge is, one wonders when anyone will ask “how can we free up social care to help people live their most independent and chosen lives
“How can we free up social care to help people live their most independent and chosen lives for as long as possible?”
for as long as possible?”
It doesn’t have to be like this. There will be a long road to turn this around. But a crucial start would be our care and health ministers, the secretary of state, chancellor and prime minster acting as if they understood that social care and health are two parts of one system. Its staff are essential to our society and economy. Social care is not ‘the hospital discharge wing’ of the NHS – it enables independent living, helps people be safe, enables informal care and is vital to preventing admissions in the first place.
What we need is political care, drive and imagination to turn this around –and the will to change it in lockstep with the sector, with staff and with people needing social care now and in the future.
What sort of high-quality care could we all look forward to if we were creatively and tangibly planning and designing the social care of the future now, and dedicating ourselves to ensuring as a society we accepted its importance to wellbeing and prosperity?
30 JUNE – 01 JULY 2023 NEC BIRMINGHAM
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Over 4,000 managers, employers and sector specialists attending.
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Our host Davina McCall will celebrate key figures in the industry and interview guests with first-hand experience of care.
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Last month, I made the case for the social care sector to up its game on sustainability. To which one reader – fairly, if a little assertively – challenged me to say what the sector actually needed to do. So, here’s my starting suggestion.
Research published in 2021 by the National Housing Federation highlighted that England’s homes produce more carbon emissions every year than is produced by all of the country’s cars. England’s 25 million homes produce 58.5 million tonnes of CO2 every year, compared to the 27 million cars in use in England, emitting 56 million tonnes of CO2 annually.
There are some 17,500 care homes in the UK, providing a home to more than 400,000 people; 70% of these are residential settings. In the UK, the government estimates the average residential property contributes six tonnes of carbon every year. So, that would suggest that care homes are contributing something like 74,000 tonnes of carbon every year. But that is almost definitely a very significant underestimate. The UK’s first carbon-neutral care home –Luxurycare Group’s Eagles Mount care home in Poole – calculated that, prior to committing to a net zero approach, its annual carbon impact amounted to 163 tonnes a year. If this figure were replicated for all care homes, we would be looking at an annual total carbon impact of the UK’s residential care homes of more like 2 million tonnes.
In the UK, we know the average residential property has an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating –and, thus, environmental impact rating – of D. In private rented accommodation, 60% of properties have an EPC rating of D or lower; staggeringly, this accounts for 77% of all CO2 emissions in homes across England and Wales. The government wants all non-domestic rented buildings to meet a minimum EPC rating of B by 2030, with the expectation that an EPC rating of C will be the minimum by 2025. All of this probably means that some 60% of residential care homes – 10,500
properties – will need to improve their energy efficiency by at least one EPC level over the next few years.
It is estimated that each EPC grade climbed represents around a 30% to 40% reduction in CO2 emissions per year. So, the potential reduction in carbon emissions of bringing all residential care homes up to an EPC rating could be truly significant – perhaps as much as a reduction of over 500,000 tonnes of carbon.
But isn’t this all terribly expensive? Well, surprisingly, not really. The average cost of remedial action to take a residential property from a D rating to a C rating is estimated as £5,500. Even for larger properties, the average is estimated at approximately £12,000. And the payback is becoming increasingly significant. Property company Knight Frank estimates energy cost savings from moving from a D to a C rated property could save nearly £400 a year. And the value of a home which moves from a D to a C rating adds an additional 3% to its value over and above local house price growth, equivalent to some £9,000 based on average resale value.
The most common energy-efficiency improvements you can make require relatively modest investment. Things like
low-impact lighting, draught proofing, improved insulation, replacement windows, better heating controls. Or just adding some draught excluders, turning lights out in empty rooms, and other small but important changes. More expensive, but often more effective, improvements like installing solar power and heat pumps are becoming increasingly common. And with energy costs having spiralled, and unlikely to reduce any time soon, the case for these investments has never been greater.
I would also highly recommend involving your teams in this agenda and asking them how they think improvements can be made; they usually know best what’s happening at a local level and are normally as keen as anyone to play their part on the sustainability agenda.
Energy-efficiency and sustainability really is a win-win scenario. For most care homes, relatively modest financial investment can dramatically reduce the property’s carbon footprint and save energy costs at the same time. And that’s good for business and the planet.
That’s my starter for 10. I’ll cover other areas in future columns – and would love to hear from others of how you are tackling this agenda.
31 CPD IN FOCUS
Skills for Care's Rob Newby discusses why continuing to learn and develop is important at a senior level
32 C T ON THE ROAD
We visit WCS Care's pioneering Woodside Care Village
36 CHEF OF THE MONTH
Sonya Baklova, regional chef, Hallmark Care Homes
37 NORRMS’ BLOG
Norrms McNamara on how dementia robs people of their independence and everyday routines
38 CREATIVE CARING
Carers demonstrate their creativity through fun and innovative activities
39 CARE FOR TOMORROW
Oomph! launches new wellbeing digital platform and the NHS Transformation Directorate provides an update on progress towards digitalisation of the adult social care sector
41 10 QUESTIONS WITH Diane Collins of Boutique Care Homes' Chartwell House
42 C ARE SECTOR'S GOT TALENT
We catch up with last year’s ‘Care Sector’s Got Talent’ winner Sarabdeep Singh from Hallmark Care Homes
44 HEALTHCARE SUMMIT 2022
We round-up of some of this year's highlights
When we first start out in our careers, training is a given. It’s something both we and our employers think we need to do to be able to fulfil our roles effectively. It gives us the skills and knowledge we need and helps us feel confident and motivated as we set off building our careers.
As we plan to move up the career ladder we look out for more opportunities for learning and development – ways to build our skills and take on new responsibilities, to support us in taking the next step up.
When you think of this journey it can seem that when you reach a certain level in your career the need for ongoing training becomes less essential. But that’s not the case. After all, there’s always something new to learn.
A manager’s learning journey should never end. No matter what level you reach in your career, and whether or not you’re hoping to take the next step up in seniority, it’s important to refresh and build on your knowledge continually.
We’re living in a world that moves and changes very fast, and that’s especially true in social care. The past few years living with the Covid-19 pandemic have shown us just how fast things can change, and our social care managers and workers at all levels did a great job in learning new information and ways of working to adapt to these new circumstances. The new skills which were enhanced during this period (adaptability, resilience and information analysis, to name a few) will stand us all in good stead in many new situations moving forward.
Digital technology is such an important part of our society and is becoming ever-more ingrained in social care processes. It’s important that social care managers keep up to speed with digital ways of working to continue to deliver best practice and innovative solutions to provide the best levels of care to the people they support. It’s also key that managers encourage these same skills in their team, and are able to lead
“When you think of this journey it can seem that when you reach a certain level in your career the need for ongoing training becomes less essential.”
by example in utilising digital tools and being able to explain digital processes and benefits to their team.
This is one of the most crucial reasons why it’s so important that managers continue their own learning journey through their own careers. By keeping your own skills and knowledge updated and demonstrating enthusiasm for learning and development, you can encourage your team to do the same for their own personal development.
We all know how busy it is working in social care and finding time for training can be a challenge. But if senior team members can prioritise setting aside time for their continuing professional development, then other team members will feel more confident and comfortable to do the same.
And of course, leading a team is something which itself requires continued attention to ensure you’re working in the best way. There are always new approaches being developed to best communicate with, inspire and lead your team, and to be an effective manager it’s important to prioritise these people skills.
Just like on day one of your very first job, continuing professional development throughout your career helps to keep you motivated, confident and excited about your role which in turn makes for a well-lead and effective team.
Find out more about continuing professional development for managers with our #KeepLearning spotlight.
We’ve also created a guide which brings together the support we offer to develop the leadership skills of your workforce at different levels. This includes structured learning in the form of learning programmes and qualifications, practical support such as tools and resources, and making connections through networking and relationship building. You can find the guide, ‘Supporting the development of leadership skills’, in the resources/ documents section of our website.
Amid a worrying national decline in dementia care quality, WCS Care’s Woodside Care Village in Warwick is an example of how it should be done. Lee Peart went along last month to see what makes Woodside so special.
On arriving at Woodside I was required to take a Covid test and don a mask before being admitted through the front security door. Over the Christmas and New Year period, the home had maintained tight infection control procedures which were supported by residents and families, including mask wearing by staff and visitors.
After being welcomed with tea and a croissant by Woodside’s friendly receptionist Megan, I sat and waited for my tour of the home in the ‘A Cup Above’ café. I was immediately struck by the warm, welcoming and relaxed atmosphere. Soothing Phil Collins music played in the café and reception area, which was full of light thanks to the large windows facing out onto the central Village Plaza.
It was not long before the café filled up for a game of bingo led by some of the support workers using a Tiny Tablet interactive screen. As the room filled I was joined by home manager Samantha Stuart and director of marketing and communications Jo Cheshire who ushered me into the home’s cinema, which plays classic movies 24-7.
“There’s always a film on so if people walk past and glance in they can choose to come in and sit down and watch for a bit,” Jo said. Residents are also able to use the cinema screen with the home’s exercise bike while watching videos and virtually cycling around towns and cities such as Warwick and Paris.
Based on the Dutch De Hogeweyk model, where residents roam freely in a community style, deinstutionalised setting, Woodside Care Village was built on the site of an old WCS Care home in 2019. The village is split into 12 households of five to seven residents.
The households are designed along the lifestyle themes of Country, Town and Classical living to help build communities of people with similar hobbies, interests and personalities.
“When people move in, we ask so
many questions about who they are or who they were to find out whether they would fit in with the other people living in their household,” Sam told me.
Residents in each household are cared for by two staff who share the same hobbies and interests so that they are able to form a very close bond.
Jo added: “The household model really worked well during Covid. We had one Covid case when a resident came in from hospital during the first wave, but we were able to contain it and it didn’t spread between the staff and residents.”
It’s surprising to hear there are 72 residents in the village as its V-shaped design provides a much smaller and intimate feel than the typical care home.
I was interested to learn that while half of the households cater for people living with dementia, the other half houses residential care, with two households devoted to deaf people.
“We are attracting more residential customers because people are seeing us
as a positive choice,” Jo observed. “We saw more people choosing to live in a home like this after Covid because they realised how lonely or isolated they were and wanted to live in a community with people around them.
“Some of our deaf residents are much younger and they are out and about in the community all the time.”
Sam said: “People were worried a little bit about whether mixing younger and older residents would work at the beginning, but they are so beautiful to
“The households are designed along the lifestyle themes of Country, Town and Classical living to help build communities of people with similar hobbies, interests and personalities. ”
watch together. The younger residents will help the elderly and the elderly enjoy having fun with the younger residents who always make them laugh.”
Amazingly, the ages of residents in the home ranges from 26 to 103!
The Village Plaza acts as the focal point of the village where residents can roam freely in the garden, play crazy golf and table tennis or visit the launderette, community zone, hair and beauty salon, or go to choose their lunch from the mini-market, which provides an amazing 42 options of hot meals supplied by apetito, as well as soup, vegetables, potatoes, desserts and fresh produce that residents can choose to take back to their households to cook with their support workers. The garden in the Plaza looks out invitingly onto the surrounding neighbourhood with benches situated so residents can sit and watch the passing traffic and pedestrians, and even interact with people as they pass by.
The home also uses a range of technology from electronic care planning, to night-time acoustic monitoring (which includes cameras for those residents who choose them) and circadian lighting, all aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of residents.
WCS Care’s core value of ‘kindness’ extends to how the not-for-profit
“People don’t go into care for the money, it’s more about their passion to care, but we still pay our teams above National Minimum Wage which has really helped especially through such hard times.”
provider treats its staff.
“They are not just a number here,” Sam said. “They have a benefits platform and get discounts at certain shops and are able to get counselling and financial and housing advice.
“People don’t go into care for the money, it’s more about their passion to care, but we still pay our teams above National Minimum Wage which has really helped especially through such hard times.”
Each new starter is given a fleece with a ‘Care Hero’ label. As of this year, the label will also display the starting year the colleague joined the business. Colleagues are encouraged to champion areas such as infection control and become team leaders and move up to
more senior roles.
“Our head of learning and development has introduced a management college in the last few years,” Jo said. “There are opportunities to do NVQs and Institute of Leadership and Management qualifications.”
Woodside Care Village was also one of the first WCS homes to roll out the BookJane shift management app which has drastically reduced the number of agency shifts from 112 at the beginning of December to four by the middle of January.
“We are seeing that more money is going into the pockets of our staff who are picking up additional shifts,” Jo observed. “You also have the knockon effect of better-quality care with residents being cared for by the same care teams and people.”
In a further innovation, WCS Care has also introduced a ‘Mobile Carers’ network so that staff can work between homes and share shifts.
“It offers the same flexibility as working for an agency, but you also get the company benefits of annual leave and other incentives,” Sam noted.
With so much innovation and best practice on offer, providers could do a lot worse than paying a visit to Woodside Care Village to learn the WCS Care way.
Ontex has teamed up with Caring Times once again to reward those working in care homes who are always ready to go that extra mile.
There are thousands of people working in UK care homes that make a real difference, whether it’s behind the scenes in the laundry room, preparing meals in the kitchen, or direct personal care of the residents. We’re looking for those that go beyond the job description. For example, it could the gardener who brings a resident their favourite cookies, or a housekeeper who helps a resident to rediscover their hobbies – we’re searching for those who bring a little bit of extra joy into the care world. Your unsung hero may be a colleague or someone else you know, and now is the time to reward those individuals that have made a genuine impact on their particular place of work!
If you know of anyone that fits the bill, entries can be made online at: caring-times.co.uk/care-home-heroes
So go to this link and tell us, in 400 words or less, why you think your nominated person deserves to win. Make sure to include an example of when they have gone the extra distance to make a difference.
All winners will be announced in June and will be presented with their certificate and Love2Shop vouchers or similar gift card on Friday 30 June at the Care
Managers Show at the NEC.
Three runner-up winners will each receive £250 Love2Shop vouchers or similar gift card, and the Overall Winner will receive a £500 Love2Shop voucher or similar gift card.
The three runner-up winners will feature in the September, October and November issues of Caring Times magazine, and the Overall Winner will feature in a special feature in the December issue of Caring Times
This prize draw is organised by Ontex, Weldon House, CorbyGate Business Park, Priors Haw Road, Corby, NN17 5JG. It is governed by the laws of England and Wales and it is subject to the following conditions:
• The prize draw is not open to employees or contractors of Ontex or any person directly or indirectly involved in the organisation and running of the competition or their direct family members.
• No purchase is necessary to take part in the prize draw.
• The prize draw is open to UK residents only who are aged 18 or over.
• Closing date for entry is Friday 19th May . Winners will be notified by 1st June 2023
• All winners will be presented with their Award at the Care Managers Show if they are able to attend on Friday 30th June .- otherwise they will be sent a certificate
• Permission will be required for Ontex to contact the winners and visit them to hand deliver the prizes when possible.
• If the winners do not confirm acceptance of his/her prize within 7 days he/she will automatically forfeit the rights to claim for the prize. In the event of the prize not being claimed, Ontex reserves the right to select an alternative winner via any means that Ontex feel appropriate.
• By participating in the prize draw, you declare that you accept these terms and conditions unconditionally. There is no cash alternative.
Care Homes Heroes 2023 offers a unique chance to celebrate the dedication of all those who go above and beyond to keep care homes running. It’s a brilliant way to shine the spotlight on people who get on with their jobs unseen and unheard, but make a real difference.
“This is the fifth year we’ve worked with Caring Times for the Care Home Heroes and we absolutely love it because it’s important to shine a light on those who go above and beyond for their residents,” commented Angela Gillespie, distributor channel manager at Ontex. “And it doesn’t have to be a grand gesture - it’s the little, consistent things that really have an impact on someone’s life.”
Last year, we received over 350 entries and it took a panel of five to decide the finalists. Gillespie continued: “It’s a difficult competition to judge because each person is so deserving. My top tip when nominating somebody is to use a particular example with lots of detail for how they have made a difference and how this impacted others – good luck to all nominees!”
Overall Winner 2022: Nicola Mould, home manager, Orchard Mews, HC-One Care Home Heroes 2022 Overall Winner was Nicola Mould. Nicola was nominated by community nurse, Jennifer Dodds, whose mum was a resident at Orchard Mews. “My Mum suffered from Alzheimer’s and was discharged from hospital post-Covid with deteriorated condition for palliative care,” says Jennifer. “Nicola made every effort to support my Mam, myself and my siblings during such a traumatic and sad time. She went above and beyond her role to support and help us all, often staying at work hours past her shift ending when mum deteriorated to wait for the GP to review and implement a plan and ensure Mam was comfortable and pain free.”
“The Care Home Heroes competition is a great opportunity for us to recognise and reward those working in our care homes who are always ready to go that extra mile and have made a real impact to the lives of residents,” says James Tugendhat,
chief executive at HC-One. “We are always on the lookout for opportunities to celebrate our colleagues’ achievements. We were delighted that Nikki Mould, home manager at HCOne’s Orchard Mews Care Home, was selected as the overall winner of the Care Home Heroes competition in 2022,” he continues. “Nikki was nominated for being professional, empathetic and knowledgeable, and in recognition of how she delivers high quality nursing care and excels in the management of her amazing care team whose care philosophy is completely person-centred.”
Runner-up 2022: Karen Jones, domestic, Park House Care Home, Eastgate Care Karen Jones has been with Park House Care Home for just under 10 years, and her standards have never slipped. “Nothing is too much trouble for this lady who always clocks up to 50 hours a week making sure our home is extremely clean,” says Park House. “No speck of dirt escapes her.” During the pandemic Karen was fastidious in ensuring all recommended measures were put in place and the home received a glowing CQC Infection Prevention and Control report. Karen spends her spare time with the people who live at Park House, singing, playing board games and chatting.
Runner-up 2022: Paul Bond, housekeeper, Fremantle Trust
As housekeeper, Paul gets involved with most of the residents. After noticing a fishing magazine in the room of one resident, “RS”, Paul decided to make his wish to go fishing again come true. Along with RS’ daughter Tracey, he arranged everything from obtaining a fishing licence, sorting out a suitable venue, carrying out a risk assessment and organising a carer to accompany the two of them. Paul ensured that RS had an amazing day out, and took a photograph of the fish he caught and landed. “We were so pleased that we could fulfil RS’ dream,” says Fremantle Trust. “He has been to fish three times now and further plans have been made.”
apple and blackberry crumble or a fruit jelly with ice cream.
How do you meet residents’ nutritional and health needs?
I aim to provide a varied diet, paying particular attention to any allergies, intolerances or other medical concerns such as diabetes, coeliac disease or lactose intolerance. For me, a well-balanced menu should have the right proportion of protein for preventing muscle wastage in residents, carbohydrates for sustained energy, and plenty of vegetables and fresh fruits to keep residents’ nutrient levels up.
How do you cater for residents with dementia?
Tell us about your background and how you joined Hallmark
I moved to England from Bulgaria in 2002, where I worked as a nurse. I joined Barchester as a carer, but I always had a passion for cooking. I began to help out in the kitchen and eventually started covering for the weekend chef until a head chef position became available. I had the opportunity to achieve cookery qualifications and in 2012 I won the Barchester Chef of the Year competition. In 2016, I joined the Hallmark family, and I never looked back.
“My favourite part of the meal is the dessert. This is the final dish the residents’ meal and should put a smile on their faces. My personal favourite is a chocolate torte”
What is special about working at Hallmark?
Hallmark is a company that does all it can to make you feel that you are a part of a family. They give all their team a great opportunity to develop their skills and progress, and the residents benefit from this too.
How do you vary your menu to provide choice for residents?
I always provide a choice of at least two starters, two mains (one with meat or fish and a vegetarian option) with seasonal vegetables and a choice of two desserts. For supper, the dishes are generally lighter choices. In addition to their meals, residents are also offered snacks such as freshly baked biscuits or cakes during the day.
What does your typical weekly menu look like?
A typical menu example may include a warming winter vegetable soup for a starter, a pan seared seabass with fresh greens or a vegetable lasagne with a healthy side salad. Dessert could be an
The food for residents living with dementia needs to be tasty, eye-catching, well-balanced and often finger food to make it easier for residents to eat and to make mealtimes less stressful and confusing.
What is your most popular dish?
It would depend entirely upon who was asked. Food is enjoyed by everyone differently and, for some, a simple dish may be their favourite as it reminds them of a dish from their childhood, or a more elaborate, because of a holiday abroad.
What is your favourite dish?
My favourite part of the meal is the dessert. This is the final dish the residents’ meal and should put a smile on their faces. My personal favourite is a chocolate torte as I know it’s always devoured by our residents and there are never any leftovers which, as a head chef, is always a great sign!
How do you make the dining experience special for residents and their families?
I love to see our residents and their families happy, and the only way to achieve that is with quality food, a great dining experience and, most importantly, service with a smile.
Sometimes I sit and try to think about certain things and the one thing that always pops up and makes me so incredibly sad is trying to remember the last time I went out on my own, anywhere. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my wife more than life itself and will never be bored of being in her company; she is so loving and funny, but sometimes, just sometimes, I wish I could do the things most people do on my own. You know, take a walk for a morning newspaper, sit on a bench and read some on the way back and watch the world go by, or say to Elaine “What do you need? I will go and get that”, and not to mention the odd pint in the pub, laughing, joking, making friends.
You see when people think about dementia, they don’t think about things like this; it would never cross their minds that dementia can play such a horrid part in stopping you from living your everyday life and just doing the simple things. Over the years and for the past 10 years I have been told I have lost my road sense; if my wife or carer is not with me when I try to cross a road then all hell breaks loose as I will walk unknowingly across the road whether there’s oncoming traffic or not – just ask the bus drivers at St Marychurch where I live! As time goes by and each year passes, sadly you become used to it and it becomes a way of life, but deep down, every time you’d love to go somewhere on your own, and you can’t, it hits home.
I have become very good at hiding this, you see, people with dementia are so good at hiding things, especially when it comes to their feelings, but sometimes it hurts so much. You feel like you’re a burden, an annoyance, and I am sure others feel the same. You have to reshape your days, No! – reshape your life around this I should say – and it’s yet another thing added to the problems connected with dementia that nobody ever talks about. Did anybody ever tell you that because the person can’t go out at night because of sundowning, your friends list would shrink, the invites
would stop – even the ones for during the day – because dementia has raised its ugly head? Or have they ever told you about the incontinence, bed wetting, shouting and screaming at night due to night terrors, the loss of reality, times and dates, swearing, and foul moods? How about your spouse of so many years saying they don’t recognise you? No, sadly I suspect not.
Is there a thing as too much information when it comes to dementia or any other illness? I personally think not, but I do think there’s a time and
place for everything, and everything should be spoken about at the right time, in stages, as the disease progresses, as it does in other illnesses like cancer and heart problems, so why not dementia. Why is dementia STILL this TABOO subject that’s still whispered about in some corners – so very frustrating!
I do worry about this, I would be lying if I said I don’t, but I worry more about the future, of those to come who will be diagnosed with dementia. Will they still be going through the stigma we all did in this day and age? I certainly hope not.
As always, carers have been demonstrating their creativity through fun and innovative events for their residents…
shortage of bags for patients to carry the syringe drivers, battery powered pumps that deliver medication. Residents have so far knitted a dozen of the colourful bags.
When reindeer visited Heathfield Court care home in Erith, team members were determined that 95-year-old resident Elsie would not miss out. They led two reindeer into the lifts and to Elsie’s bedside where she stroked and patted them. Elsie’s daughter, Jill Bickerstaffe, said: “Mum has advanced dementia and her communication is limited, so it was wonderful to see her face light up with sheer delight when she saw the reindeer.”
Buckland Care’s Blackwater Mill care home on the Isle of Wight has welcomed two new residents. Cockatiels Phillip and Lilibet were donated by Key’s Little Birds. Studies have shown that seeing or hearing birds is associated with an improvement in mental wellbeing that can last up to eight hours. The home was also visited by Peggy the barn owl, after which residents got involved in owlrelated crafts.
Smiles brings together young children, their parents and residents for music, movement, singing and the chance to develop long-lasting friendships. The purpose of the activity is to reduce loneliness, improve wellbeing, tackle ageism and unite local communities.
Residents at Anchor’s Southampton care home Dawson Lodge kicked off 2023 with a new interactive activity table, with access to puzzles, wordsearches and other games. Interactive tables can reduce boredom and provide stimulation, and are easier to engage with than tablets and phones.
Creative residents at a Dorset dementia care home have celebrated the importance and beauty of trees in a fun, hands-on seasonal nature project. Over two months, tree-lovers who live in Colten Care’s The Aldbury in Poole gathered and prepared fallen leaves as natural decorations to ‘dress’ the cherry, apple, oak and maple trees in the home’s gardens and courtyard.
Residents at Advinia Health Care’s Newcarron Court Care Home in Falkirk have been busy knitting syringe driver bags to help patients receiving palliative care at Beatson Hospital. The club began after activity coordinator Hazel Phillips noticed a Facebook post highlighting a
Residents at Care UK’s Rush Hill Mews care home in Bath have been sharing marriage advice with bride-to-be Sharon Hopson, the home’s head of activities. The initiative was part of Care UK’s national Wisdom Booths scheme, which sees residents share their advice with younger generations. Alongside their advice, residents also shared photos from their own wedding days and reminisced about their favourite memories as a bride.
Anya Court in Rugby welcomed a gaggle of young visitors into the home as part of a new weekly music session run by The Together Project. Songs &
Residents at a Leamington Spa-based care home had a welcome surprise as two alpacas visited them. Dante and Caya from Alpaca Pals, which offers up close and personal alpaca experiences, visited MHA Homewood. The pair spent some time in the home, which offers personalised residential care for 50 residents.
Care homes can be a stressful environment, but unhappy staff are less able to support and care for residents. Charlotte Goddard finds out how one organisation is using tech to promote staff wellbeing.
Practitioner wellbeing has been heavily impacted by the pandemic. University of Exeter research found care home staff have been suffering from upset and trauma, stress and guilt. Even pre-pandemic, 51% of care home staff said they had considered leaving their job because of its effect on their mental health, according to The Care Workers Charity.
Wellbeing organisation Oomph! is expanding its support for care home staff, with the launch of digital platform myStrength – delivered by Oomph!
“Oomph! works with more than 1,200 care homes which means we are able to instantly reach thousands of care workers and hopefully make a real difference at a time of crisis,” says Ben Allen, Oomph!’s founder and chief executive.
The organisation already provides training for care home staff as well as Oomph! On Demand, which gives care homes digital access to specialist wellbeing programmes designed around the needs and interests of residents.
“Oomph! On Demand came to life during the pandemic so we could continue to bring expert wellbeing to care homes and their residents,” says Allen. “Our new digital platform enables us to revolutionise care homes’ access to wellbeing and enrich the lives of even more residents, so it was a natural next step for Oomph! to think about care worker wellbeing.”
Oomph! is partnering with US
organisation Teladoc Health to create the app, which allows staff to access on-demand, personalised wellbeing resources and interact with a real-life, UK-based guide.
Teladoc’s own portal has been running in the US for 12 years and has been developed using eight evidence-based psychotherapy models, including cognitive behavioural therapy. “This [content] is not something you could Google and find online,” says Rebecca Newman, director of mental health services at Teladoc Health. A randomised control trial in 2017 found that myStrength users experienced a reduction of depressive symptoms 18 times greater than the control group.
myStrength – delivered by Oomph! has been designed specifically for UK care workers. “This is a wellness app, helping people maintain mental wellness before they need to be out of work,” says Newman. It provides support for a range of workplace and homelife issues including managing chronic pain, pregnancy, becoming a parent, dealing with drug and alcohol use and ageing.
Care workers are directed to personalised activities following a short assessment. For example, if someone’s answers show they may be suffering from burnout, they may be directed to a range of activities which help build resilience such as audio-guided mindfulness meditation. Like Netflix or Amazon, the app can recommend further activities based on what people have liked in the
past. Content includes videos, articles and inspirational quotes and images created by healthcare experts, as well as tools to track health, create goals and improve sleep and mental health.
Care workers can send a message to their guide at any time, and the guide will respond within 24 business hours with encouragement, goal setting and activity suggestions. For example, a care worker may choose to share that he or she is struggling because a resident has died, and the guide will recommend activities to help.
At the same time as launching the new staff-focused platform, Oomph! is revamping Oomph! On Demand, with new features including direct access for residents, friends and family and wider care home staff beyond the activity co-ordinator. A resources hub allows care teams to improve their wellbeing delivery skills and a residents’ area allows care teams to track, plan and review the impact of activities. The new version launched in early February. “Bringing resident and employee wellbeing together along with training is a real gamechanger,” says Allen.
The Digitising Social Care programme involves a joint team of NHS England and DHSC staff supporting the digital transformation of the adult social care sector in order to improve the quality and safety of care.
The programme aims to ensure that 80% of Care Quality Commission registered providers adopt digital social care record solutions by March next year.
By December approximately 50% of registered care providers had moved away from paper-based record management and instead implemented a digital social care record software (DSCR) solution. As we enter the new year there’s no doubt that we’re going to see a further increase in the numbers of providers following suit.
The uptake in DSCRs makes 2023 the first year that most providers will be working digitally. This digital shift will help staff provide outstanding, personalised care by having the most upto-date information at their fingertips. But it will also open up opportunities for care staff to develop new skills and create new professional development opportunities.
These roles will blend both technical and professional/carer skillsets to create a new category of workers – staff who both understand technology but who also have the caring expertise and skillset to understand how technology can, and should, be applied to their work in order to deliver better care. Having these roles and skillsets in place will be critical to ensuring investment in technology and digital innovation results in better services and support for the people we care for.
DSCRs are undoubtedly the foundations of digitalisation in the adult
social care sector. They allow staff to access relevant information quickly and efficiently across both health and social care to support the delivery of better and more personalised care to an individual.
An exciting first step towards improved access to health information in the adult social care sector is the opportunity for CQC registered providers to view information via GP Connect. This approach allows providers (who meet the relevant criteria, including having a DSCR in place provided by an NHS assured supplier) to see a restricted view of an individual’s GP record. More than 800 providers are already using GP Connect in this way and we predict that with a greater uptake in DSCRs this year we will see more providers coming on board.
Traditionally the move towards greater digitalisation of the sector has been very much driven by the early adopters of tech, those who have always been at the forefront of digital engagement.
This year we hope to see more providers who may have previously been less involved in making investments in this area begin to take their first steps on the digital journey. And, despite the significant pressures within the care and health system, this growing momentum towards digitalisation will lead to more innovative ideas and proposals on how tech can improve people’s lives and improve the quality of care that we deliver during 2023 and beyond.
It may sound daunting, knowing where to begin, but there’s lots of support available. A good starting point is the Digital Social Care website (digitalsocialcare.co.uk) which has information on everything from how to select a DSCR supplier and access funding support to info on the training that’s available to support your staff.
Sign up for our monthly newsletter for regular updates on our work on digitalising social care – just drop us an email at: england.adultsocialcare@nhs.net
Why did you join the social care sector? I joined the sector due to being a social person wanting to make a difference in others’ lives.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
The thing I enjoy most is being privileged to be included in so many people’s life journeys over the years I have worked in social care, being able to support each individual to continue to make memories, seeing people smile and enjoying life regardless of abilities.
Who is your social care hero and why? That would have to be without a doubt Mother Teresa, a lady who herself lived a life of poverty to try and improve the conditions others were living with, a lady who was devoted and compassionate, inspiring thousands of lives. A lady who made a real difference to thousands of lives, not expecting any reward in return, a humble lady.
What is the one thing you would change about social care?
The one thing I feel still needs addressing is the status of all workers within the social care sector to be recognised as a role just as important and equal to one conducted within the NHS.
What, in your opinion, makes a great care worker?
In my opinion qualities which make a great carer are a person who has empathy, is passionate, someone who is friendly and attentive, and a person who can engage and listen to another person, as this is one of the most valuable services a carer can provide. A person who has a sense of humour and can put themselves in another person’s shoes, someone who is open minded, a person who can support without judgement.
What do you do when life all gets a bit too much?
I sit back and reflect on the positives and take time to enjoy the people most
important to me. I am one person and sometimes as a home manager I do need to sit back, reflect and take a moment to see the good in what I do and achieve on a daily basis. If I am at work, I would go and sit with my residents and listen to their stories. Their smiles make a difference to how I feel and why I continue to work as a home manager.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Believe in yourself more, you can achieve anything you work for. And I would have opened my own care home.
Which three famous people would have to dinner and why?
David Walliams, as he would bring humour and warmth as well as being the person on the front line of the 2025 Alzheimer’s campaign, on a mission to bring about the first life-changing dementia treatment by 2025. I would have also liked to have been able to sit around the table with two ladies who have since passed away, one being our great Queen Elizabeth II, being the most iconic woman in my lifetime, a lady who
dedicated her whole life to others, a lady who held herself with such grace, a lady who had to step into her role at such a young age after the loss of her father – the stories she could tell would be priceless. The second lady who is another one of my social care heroes would be Marie Curie, a lady who despite all the odds won the Nobel Prize for her discovery of radiation, which in turn helped advance medical science. I would love to sit down and understand the struggles she overcame at a time when few women were allowed to enter higher education. What a mix I would have at my dinner table, what great conversation and inspirational people.
What three items would you bring with you on a desert island?
A water purifier as we all need to keep hydrated to survive, a knife to be able to cut fruit from trees and branches to make shelter and a fishing net to catch something to eat.
What is your secret talent?
I am good at drawing and can draw children Disney murals.
Caring Times caught up with last year’s ‘Care Sector’s Got Talent’ winner Sarabdeep Singh from Hallmark Care Homes to find out what attracted him to the industry and to enter the celebratory showcase event.
It was only last summer that Sarabdeep Singh joined Hallmark Care Homes’ facility in Lightwater, Surrey. “I came to the UK in February last year from India and initially worked for another provider. Social care was my first job in the UK and I would never do another job; I love supporting and working with older people,” said Sarabdeep.
“One of my relatives was already working at Lakeview and told me to apply due to its lovely ambience. I’m a care assistant there, I work nights and I really enjoy helping other people with their care needs.”
Sarabdeep wasn’t always a care assistant, however. For four years he worked as a dance instructor teaching traditional dance in India and regularly performing shows and music videos in his hometown in Punjab. In the UK, Sarabdeep has also performed at many concerts including the O2, The Royal Albert Hall and Buckingham Palace for the late Queen’s Jubilee celebrations. “From childhood at the age of nine, I used to perform; it’s always been my hobby and it makes me happy,” said Sarabdeep.
When ‘Care Sector’s Got Talent’ opened and Hallmark Care Homes encouraged its team members to take part, Sarabdeep was given the opportunity to show the care industry his signature dance moves and jumped at the chance. “I entered because it’s one of my interests and I was excited to showcase my talent to everyone,” he said. “When I was shortlisted, it felt really good and I was surprised. I didn’t believe it at first and I was really happy to be selected. My parents were really excited for me as well.”
Sarabdeep then performed live as part of the national talent extravaganza from the Blue Orange Theatre in Birmingham in October alongside seven other gifted care workers and residents. From pianists to singers and dancers, the talented finalists from across the UK gave incredible performances demonstrating both their passion for care and the diversity of talent in the sector.
The special event was hosted by Angela Boxall, Majesticare chief executive, chair of the competition’s committee, and Championing Social Care organising committee member. It was live streamed across the UK and Angela was joined in her efforts by the one and only ‘Ant & Dec’ of the care sector – Mark Topps and Adam Parnell who welcomed the finalists alongside an illustrious panel of judges.
Judges to the 2022 competition included: Steph Thompson from My Home Life England, Sanjay Dhrona from the Close Care Home, Sarah Hyman from Nexus Media Group and Rob Martin from Anchor. The event was watched by more than 1,500 people and 100% of participants said CSGT helped them to celebrate the social care sector. “I really enjoyed performing in
the competition, it was a nice experience, the environment was good and people seemed to really enjoy watching me perform,” said Sarabdeep.
Sarabdeep was crowned winner and was awarded a £500 LoveToShop voucher. He also performed for 350 guests at The Leaders in Care Awards and officially opened The Care Show at the NEC in Birmingham. “I was on cloud nine when I won,” he said. “I was very nervous before the competition but thoroughly enjoyed performing on stage. I was so grateful to the judges, the audience and my team and the residents at Lakeview for their support.”
While the competition is now over for Sarabdeep, it hasn’t stopped him
performing and he encourages other care workers and residents to apply for this year’s competition so their talents can also be recognised. “On special occasions such as Diwali, I perform for the residents at Lakeview who appreciate my skills and love to watch and try to join in and move their legs and arms like me,” he said.
Angela Boxall added: “The joy of the live final really allowed the acts and sector to sparkle. Sarabdeep absolutely wowed our audience and judges who commented on how he dances from the heart. Just wonderful! It was a true honour and privilege to get to know last year’s contestants and be involved with CSGT22. We are part of a very special sector filled with talented and gifted
people, I’m already excited for this year’s competition!”
‘Care Sector’s Got Talent’ opens for entries on 7 February and you can watch last year’s competition at: youtube.com/ watch?v=Ma7T1e7LiLo
All talented people, whether in the field of singing, dancing, comedy, magic or music, should stay tuned and keep an eye out for the registrations to open.
Care Sector’s Got Talent 2023 is able to go ahead due to the generous support of its sponsors, Florence and Marr Procurement. If you are interested in sponsoring ‘Care Sector’s Got Talent’, contact Niharika Noakes, director of championing social care at Niharika. Noakes@caretechfoundation.org.uk
More than 500 representatives from leading operators, investors, advisors and suppliers gathered to take part in take part in content-led market overviews, thought-provoking panel discussions and tailored round table discussions at the Healthcare Summit 2022 at the Design Business Centre in December. Here’s our round-up of some of the highlights.
Caring Times panel discussion: Care homes approaching ‘tipping point’ as leaders warn of closures
Care home leaders warned the sector is fast-approaching ‘tipping point’ due to soaring operational costs and staffing shortages.
The stark warning came from Nadra Ahmed, executive chairman of the National Care Association and chair of The Care Provider Alliance, who said providers were at their “wits end” and were facing “enormous pressures” with operational costs expected to rise by almost a third in 2023.
The NCA head said that despite the provision of new money by the government in the Autumn Budget, she had been told at a recent council meeting there would be no increase in care home funding.
“The state of the social care sector
after years of neglect, glimmers of hope, backed up by lies, has created a really destabilised market,” Ahmed said. “My worry is as a representative of small and medium-sized providers we will see some closures and that will make things worse for the health sector.”
Robert Kilgour, founder and executive chairman of Renaissance Care, said these were “very challenging times” for the sector which was “running on fumes”.
Kilgour said the decision on whether energy bill support would be extended beyond March could be a “tipping point”.
The care home leader said Scottish providers were generally “better off” than those in England, however, thanks to nurse bursaries, a guaranteed nursing rate of £833 a week and the carers’ living wage of £10.50 for anyone over the age of 18.
Group operations director, Martin Murphy, agreed there were regional variations in support in England and
Wales where Hallmark Care Homes operates.
“We find that local authorities recognise the cost of care more in Wales,” Murphy said.
“We have more interaction with our local authorities.”
Despite the sector’s challenges, each panel member stressed there were reasons to be optimistic about the future, however, with the pandemic having accelerated technology take-up and encouraged providers to talk more with each other as well as with the NHS.
Murphy said: “The pandemic taught us how adaptable and agile the care sector is. The next two years are going to be very difficult and not everyone is going to survive and that is going to put a bigger burden on the care sector and the NHS. However, since the pandemic we talk a lot more as care providers and share a lot more. That’s a really positive thing.”
Recruitment and Retention: Top 20 tips from Neil Eastwood Care Friends founder Neil Eastwood offered expert insight on recruitment and retention during the Caring Times presentation stream. Here’s his top 20 tips takeaway.
1. Supporting and valuing staff is more important than pay in retaining people.
2. Improving the provision of childcare or offering care staff free childcare or seriously reduced childcare costs will help.
3. Many of the people we want to reach out to are not active jobseekers.
4. Texting is much more effective than emails in improving candidate response.
5. The biggest group of people who come into care previously did boring administrative roles. This is a big opportunity to sell a role which is emotional and gives people life skills and which helps them develop the relationship experience that can be so useful in many walks of life.
6. Teaching assistants are ripe to come and work in social care.
7. We lose, but also gain, from the hospitality sector.
8. Moving people from benefits into a job in social care doesn’t work.
9. Family carers are far more likely to consider a role in social care if they are approached about it and are far more likely to be high performers.
10. We need to recruit locally in the community and hand-pick people who have the right values.
11. Chip shops are a good place to reach out to candidates with leaflets as they are standing in long queues with nothing to do. Tear off the first few strips of leaflets so that people think everyone else is interested in social care.
12. Job boards only reach a small group of people who are not necessarily suited to the role.
13. Refer a friend has always been the best-quality source of staff. There is the
potential for around a quarter of your workforce to come from your own staff recommending people.
14. Providers are trying different social media approaches such as TikTok to reach people.
15. We need to bring people into the sector who have never had a care role before to grow capacity. Only 37% of people who start a direct care role are new.
16. A third of care staff will come back if you ask them to.
17. Do more in the onboarding stage to reduce overall staff turnover.
18. When care workers join, book them in in six months’ time for training to create an emotional commitment to the role.
19. Try and apply for a role in your organisation on your phone to assess the candidate’s experience.
20. Work to be your local employer of choice.
The care home sector needs to use learning from the pandemic to boost the health and wellbeing of residents, Healthcare Summit delegates heard.
During a session on 'Pandemic-proof design for new build,’ Jenny Buterchi, partner at architect firm PRP, said postpandemic design should aim to foster social connections while allowing for social distancing if necessary.
“Health is not just the absence of disease, it’s about social, mental and physical wellbeing,” she said. “We need to think about how we can encourage that through design.”
Incidental spaces within homes can contain seating bays for social interaction, for example, but also act as passing places and reduce bottlenecks. Clusters of bedrooms should have the flexibility to divide into smaller clusters to contain infection. Handwashing stations in corridors can double as hydration stations, to encourage residents to drink water.
Lighting designed to follow the human circadian rhythm, a 24-hour internal
clock, is likely to be seen in more care homes in the future, predicted Buterchi.
“We are starting to see circadian lighting put into dementia wings and we believe it will have a large impact on sleep patterns, food intake and depression,” she explained.
Other pandemic-driven developments include staff entrances that open directly into changing areas, and visitor rooms divided by glass screens, to control infection. “If we were doing this in future, I would like to see bifold screens that can be pulled back in the event of a pandemic,” said Buterchi.
Bedroom sizes are increasing, and there are more care suites with living as well as sleeping space, she said. “If you are in your bedroom 24/7 during a pandemic, having a space to sit in a chair and not be in bed all day long is important, as is having a view to the garden spaces and the public realm.”
Natural ventilation and light are important and architects are exploring ways to bring both to care homes while still following regulations. Solutions include louvre windows and sash windows, while access to balconies
is increasing. “Obviously that needs to be looked at very carefully from a risk perspective, with higher guarding compared to a normal dwelling, but balconies allow people to be outside and feel part of nature,” Buterchi said.
Pairing bedroom doors, previously seen as a positive, is now a negative. “We thought pairing doors would be lovely because you can meet your neighbours as you are going in and out, but you are increasing the potential for social contact,” she said. There is an argument for including hospital-style windows in bedroom doors. “We haven’t as yet, but that would allow a member of staff to be able to check on someone without actually entering the bedroom, so lessening that contact.”
Post-pandemic design doesn’t have to cost more, concluded Buterchi. “I don’t think there is a huge additional cost, just a slight change of mindset. It is often about rethinking spaces rather than creating new rooms.”
Without reform to the planning system, the care sector will be unable to meet demand, according to research from property advisor Carterwood.
Only 12% of care home planning applications are currently dealt with during the statutory period, down from 22% in 2017, Carterwood’s managing director Tom Hartley told Healthcare Summit delegates.
Carterwood’s analysis shows applications for new-build care homes have remained steady over the past five years, despite Covid. “We are seeing 240 to 250 applications per annum,” said Hartley. “Even in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, we still saw 232 applications.”
While 80% of applications are eventually granted, the time taken to approve them is holding developments back, he said. Three-in-ten planning applications submitted in 2021 are still pending. “Eleven applications are still pending from 2017 – I think that speaks to the speed of decision-making within
our planning system,” Hartley told delegates.
The data shows a shortage of around 50,000 good-quality beds. “Not enough of these beds are entering the market,” said Hartley. “Even if all 250 annual applications were registered, that would still only be about 15,000 beds entering the market every year. Those 15,000 beds don’t get developed largely because of the speed of decision-making.”
Currently around 4,000 to 6,000 beds enter the market every year, but about the same number leave, he said. “Until we can find a way to speed up the planning system, we’re going to struggle to see the level of supply we need to make up the shortfall. If we could speed this up, it would make a huge difference.”
Carterwood predicts an increase in care home fees of 10% this year. “This will be necessary to counteract agency costs, the National Living Wage and general nonstaff cost increases such as utilities,” said Carterwood client relationship manager Stacey Jeffries. “We also expect to see mid-year price increases from many more operators.”
Carterwood’s analysis found average care home fees are currently £1,329 a week for nursing care and £983 a week for personal care, with a fee gap opening up between the newest homes and the rest of the market. The Northwest region has seen the biggest increases in nursing fees with a 15.9% rise.
Average occupancy has risen from 75.6% in January 2021 to 82% in September 2022. “There are strong indicators that if growth continues at its current rate, we could hit pre-pandemic occupancy levels of mid to high 80s within 2023,” said Jeffries. Carterwood’s research shows that the larger the home, the lower the occupancy.
“This may relate to the current challenging staff crisis we find ourself in,” said Jeffries. “Staffing is now the blockage of occupancy.”
Care home monthly spend on agency fees has more than doubled from £11,000 in January 2021 to £26,000 in September 2022. Homes rated Inadequate spend an average £48,000 a month on agency fees, compared to an average of £21,000 spent by Outstanding-rated homes.
Grove Care – Portfolio of four care homes
IF YOU’RE THINKING OF SELLING YOUR CARE BUSINESS, SPEAK TO THE EXPERTS: Contact our award-winning team on: 0207 448 8826 | care@christie.com
Crick House Nursing Home, Monmouthshire
Freehold £1,250,000
Detached and extended home
Registered for 49
3470705
T: 07702 809 198
LOOKING TO SELL? TALK TO THE EXPERTS.
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Hollanden Park, Tonbridge
Freehold £2,750,000
• Vacant care home
Confidential Property
Nursing Home, Wiltshire
Freehold £1,100,000
• Registered for 21
• Run under management
3470701
T: 07702 809 198
Care Home, Sudbury
Freehold £1,500,000
• Period property with substantial extensions
• Registered for 17
1476865
T: 07703 716 156
Confidential Property
Confidential Property
Care Home, Norfolk
Freehold £1,350,000
• CQC ‘Outstanding’
• EBITDA c. £180,000
1476850
T: 07703 716 156
• Stunning Grade 2 listed country mansion
8877745
T: 07764 241 296
Care Home, West Midlands
Freehold £1,950,000
• Registered for 2827 single rooms
• High occupancy levels’
5873178
T: 07791 979 041
Nursing Home, Herefordshire
Freehold £2,500,000
• Quality Care Business
• Registered for 34 (all en suite)
5873249
T: 07791 979 041
Confidential Property
Confidential Property
Confidential Property
Learning Disabilities Home, East Midlands
Freehold, £750,000
• 5 bedrooms with ensuite facilities
• CQC rated ‘Good’
5770985
T: 07703 716 156
0207 448 8826
