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21/10/14
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November 2014
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no.221 • £4.75
The Number One magazine for the care sector
CQC reveals new rating guidelines By Dominic Musgrave THE regulator has set out what Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate adult social care would look like across each of the key areas it will routinely inspect services against. The CQC has recently rolled out its new approach to regulating adult social care in England. Specialist teams, including trained members of the public (experts by experience), will inspect services against what matters most to the people who use them – are they safe, caring, effective, responsive to their needs and well-led? CQC will then rate these services as Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate so the public has clear information to help them make choices about their care. Following its public consultation and testing earlier this year, CQC has published the questions (called ‘key lines of enquiry’) that its inspection teams will use to guide them on their visits, as well as descriptions of what care would look like for each of these ratings. The guidance will be used by CQC’s inspection teams when they inspect care homes and community services
to help them be consistent when making their judgements. For care providers, it can help them to understand the sorts of things that inspection teams will be focusing on and help to know what CQC will be looking for when awarding its ratings. Andrea Sutcliffe, chief inspector of adult social care, said: “The key lines of enquiry and ratings characteristics are an important part of our new approach to inspecting and rating adult social care in England, which we will roll out formally from next month. “They will allow our inspectors to really get under the skin of adult social care services across England so that providers know what we are expecting and families and how we will consistently rate their services. “The key lines of enquiry and ratings characteristics have been developed after extensive engagement, testing and consultation with people who use services, carers, providers, commissioners and national partners. I am very grateful to everyone who has been involved in helping to shape and design the questions we will ask and the characteristics of the ratings.”
Advice is served up at home’s new cafe
Actress Natalie Anderson, who plays Alicia Metcalfe in the ITV soap Emmerdale, officially opened Elm Park Care Home in Doncaster with Councillor Pat Haith. The 75-bed facility offers residential, dementia and nursing care over three floors. It offers residents en-suite bedrooms, lounges, a beauty salon, café, bar and cinema room and three dining bistros. It is the second in what is planned as a series of homes being built by care home entrepreneur Eric Dixon, who set up Willow Park care home in Pontefract in 2011.
A CARE home is serving up a regular helping of advice to families, friends and interested parties on the issues surrounding dementia. The initiative has been set up at Birch Green in Skelmersdale, Merseyside, to help share information and expertise on dementia for those interested in learning more. By dropping in for a coffee or a tea and sharing experiences, the care home is helping families of those people with dementia come to terms with the disease and its effects. Birch Green general manager Carol Nickeas said: “We want to share our learnings with those who want to understand more about dementia and what it means. “For many families who have never experienced it, the journey can be difficult and we help to de-mystify some of the myths as well as provide information and support. An informal setting such as our cafe is ideal and is becoming a source of comfort for them.”