In the dynamic landscape of remote work, the benefits of flexibility and autonomy are accompanied by the potential pitfalls of burnout. It has become crucial to recognise and address the subtle indicators of staff burnout. In this article, we explore three warning signs that may signal your team members are experiencing the detrimental effects of excessive stress and fatigue while working from home.
By understanding these red flags, employers can proactively implement strategies to grow a healthier work environment and support their staff's wellbeing in the virtual realm.
Challenging CQC inspection reports can be difficult but sometimes, it’s necessary. CQC ratings can have a significant impact on health and social care services. Firstly, the public relies on a CQC ratings review when searching for their preferred care service and having a poor score can affect service user uptake. A CQC rating can also impact contracting decisions and CQC enforcement action, as the CQC will refer to inspection history before carrying this out against a provider.
It's therefore important that there are fair and accessible processes in place for care providers to follow should they disagree with the findings on their CQC report and associated ratings following their inspection. Most providers will understand the Factual Accuracy Comments (FAC) procedure where, after a physical inspection, they can review the draft version of their inspection report and submit evidence and comments in response to the CQC’s findings. We will look into this further later on.
With over 30 years of experience working with care services across the UK, we know exactly what you need to succeed during your regulatory body inspections and how to challenge your rating. We have put this article together to help take the stress out of an already stressful situation by giving you all of the information you need and simplifying the procedure when it comes to challenging your CQC inspection report. We will also cover the CQC challenges you may face and what to expect during your review.
Handovers in care homes should accurately convey information about residents’ conditions and needs across shift changes. They ensure that everyone is made aware of everything significant that has occurred before they start their shift. This process safeguards the continued safety of both residents and staff.
Handover notes are handwritten or electronic documents that a member of staff completes and shares with the person relieving them of their shift. They should list the tasks that have been recently completed, any updates, and instructions for the next shift.
In this article we will explore the best ways to carry out an effective handover in your care home and discuss how handover templates can help the process.
The CQC single assessment framework is now live for all adult social care
providers across the country and the new CQC provider portal is currently live for selected providers, with limited functionality, e.g. restricted to some notification types.
With the Single Assessment Framework, the CQC is aiming for a more dynamic and data-led strategy that puts people’s experiences at the forefront of regulation and the heart of the assessment framework.
As a care provider, it’s crucial that you understand the new inspection regime and how these significant changes to the way they regulate and inspect may affect you. This article has been created to help you understand more about the CQC's new inspection and assessment framework and the background to these changes.
You can also download this comprehensive guide, and sign up for our compliance experts' monthly updates on everything CQC.
Integrated Care Systems (ICS) were introduced to connect the newly formed Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and local authorities, enabling a more seamless healthcare service which could then give better visibility of the needs of patients and allow NHS organisations to more effectively meet these needs and provide the right high-quality care - with the ultimate goal of helping more people and to a greater degree of success.
In the words of NHS England: “Integrated care is about giving people the support they need, joined up across local councils, the NHS, and other partners. It removes traditional divisions between hospitals and family doctors, between physical and mental health, and between NHS and council services.”
ICSs began in July 2023 but were first proposed in February 2022, when the UK Government published its ‘Joining up care for people, places and populations’ whitepaper, which laid out new plans for the integration of health and social care in England and how ICSs can bring this together in line with the NHS Long Term Plan.
Local authorities and NHS England are working closely together but there is still a long way to go due to further government reform, funding changes and internal goals and targets. This is affecting the speed and timing for when these changes can be implemented and we are still feeling the disruption post-pandemic.
In this article we will explore the annual priorities of an Integrated Care System and how these goals are set and ranked. We will also discuss the hangover effect of Covid-19 and the strain on the NHS, the challenges of ongoing digital transformation, and the role providers such as The Access Group can have in aiding an ICB in delivering quality care to their local area.
Dignity in care should be a priority for everyone working in the care sector. Promoting respect and dignity in care should focus on how care is designed and delivered. Both dignity and respect in health and social care form the fundamental pillars that shape the quality of a service that is provided to an individual and when implemented correctly, it can improve the interactions between service users and carers as well as their quality of life.
But preserving and promoting dignity and respect in care is sometimes easier said than done. How can you ensure staff know how to strike the balance between providing care and support, without compromising people’s dignity? The first step to preserving dignity in health and social care is understanding what it means and why it’s so important.
For over 30 years, we at The Access Group have digitised care services across the world. We aim to improve the lives of both service users and providers by giving them the freedom to do more. Working in the care sector for decades, we’ve seen great examples of how you can ensure dignity and respect. This article has been created from those experiences, to explore the definition and significance of respect and dignity in care, alongside various things you can do to promote and preserve it in your service.
As customer demand increases during the summer, you need more staff - and you need to attract, recruit and train them as efficiently as possible to get you ready for the season. The nature of seasonal hospitality businesses means that often you are utilising a young and inexperienced workforce or perhaps you are recruiting staff with very specific skills, and they often move on at the end of the season – meaning you have to do the whole thing again next season.
And that is a whole lot of time, cost and resource for your operation – every season. But don’t worry, the Access Hospitality team are here to help. Our scheduling and training software is already trusted by hundreds of businesses in the seasonal hospitality sector, from hotels to theme parks and activity-led venues.
In this article, we reveal our top tips for managing seasonal recruitment – where to find top staff, how to onboard them successfully, and how to set yourself up ahead of the next season.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
As the demand for new infrastructure and housing continues to rise, so too does the urgency to adopt sustainable practices within the construction sector and reduce total emissions.
In this article, we explore how specifying low carbon construction materials can help alleviate pressure on the industry whilst helping the planet and minimising waste.
- Topic:
- Construction
Digital Health Rewired 2024 took place mid-March, and once again we were treated to an exciting exploration of cutting-edge innovations and the transformative potential of healthcare.
The venue packed out over 3,000 attendees across the two days, with more than 300 speakers and over 50 exhibitor stands - one of which being Access HSC (Health Support and Care). Our team had the pleasure of talking to hundreds of people over the course of the event, showcasing how Access is helping to transform the way people work in healthcare.
We also had the opportunity to listen in on several talks and discussions, gaining valuable insights into both the current state of the health and social care sector and its future trajectory.
Healthcare data analytics is the study of data relating to patients or services provided by a healthcare organisation. Healthcare data is extremely important to providing the very best care, but the insights available through data interpretation require expertise to extract them.
This expertise in healthcare data and analytics could be from a clinician, or it could be from a software solution, but either way there is an element of investment needed; whether that’s time, money, or belief. Without this, there will be no growth of healthcare data, but with it we can explore patterns, trends, patient habits, and make discoveries about major or minor tweaks to care processes that could save money, time, or better still save lives.
Data-driven healthcare is quickly becoming the guiding force behind modern health and care services, so in this article we will explore the importance of data in healthcare, as well provide an introduction to healthcare data analytics and explore what the analysis of healthcare data can achieve. Our goal is to make this a healthcare data guide that you can refer back to as a primer for exploring data analytics or even establishing your own analytics solutions.
