The care exchange from Skills for Care

S5 E5: We want colleagues to take ownership of their careers

Listen to Nicola Airey and Justine Jones who talk to us about how useful they have found utilising the care workforce pathways within their organisation. 

Nicola, Head of Talent Development at the National Care Group, explains how the pathway helps identify staff's career aspirations and development needs, leading to increased professional qualifications and career progression. Justine, Registered Manager at Oak House, shares her positive experience with staff engagement and development through one-to-one career conversations.  

Resources 

• Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate qualification  

S5 E4: Outstanding does not mean perfect

Cheryll Champion, an ex CQC inspector working as a quality and compliance lead joins the podcast to talk about what she learnt as when her organisation was inspected under the single assessment framework, how she ensured that it was clear how the evidence linked to quality statement and the importance of knowing the regulations. Cheryll also speaks passionately about creating a culture that enable the people they support and colleagues to be themselves. 

Resources

• Local networks for managers 
• Creating a positive workplace culture seminar 
• Care workforce pathway for adult social care: overview - GOV.UK 
• Home - The Care Workers Charity 

S5 E3: The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept

Listen to Lindsay talk about her work for QCS and what she commonly sees in both 'good' and 'outstanding' services.  She gives some great tips on effectively auditing and making improvements. We also talk about her passion project around falls based on best practice research around falls risk assessment and how a 'falls huddle' can make a difference.  

Resources

• Guide to improvement; Learning from accidents and events digital module 

External resources on the falls project  

• Action Falls Train the Trainer Course | Action Falls Program | University of Nottingham Online 
• Best practice to reduce risk in your care home using the ACTiON FALLS programme | QCS 

S5 E2: Is it a 'hell yes'?

We talk to Leah Smith, Chief People Officer at Berkley Care Group about their focus and strategy on neurodiversity. It’s estimated that 15-20% of the social care workforce identify as neurodivergent in some way. 

She talks about some of the cost-effective changes they have made to their recruitment processes including providing interview questions in advance and offering video or audio application options and walking interviews. Leah also discusses how this focus has led to a positive impact on the culture of the organisation with improved employee engagement and retention. 

In the podcast, Leah refers to a couple of resources which were a book called ‘NeuroTribes: The legacy of autism and how to think smarter about people who think differently’ and a website ‘Neurodiversity at work’. 

 

Resources 

• Values-based recruitment 
• A positive culture toolkit for adult social care 

S5 E1: You are the manager – You set the quality [Live episode]

Series 5 of the care exchange has launched with a special live episode chatting to James Bullion from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

James covers many different topics including talking about his role as Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care at the CQC. Listen as he speaks about the CQC’s plans for making improvements, how it is important to learn from things going wrong and how to ensure consistency.

Resources

• The Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care
• Local authority assessment reports - CQC
• Go Online: Inspection Toolkit

S4 E10: Improving social care – one podcast at a time

Our final episode of the current series of the care exchange, we are joined by Zoe Fry OBE from the Outstanding Society.   

Hear Pia, Wendy and Zoe reflect on previous episodes and discuss lots of interesting topics including: 

• Different ways to train leaders and staff  

• Proactively preparing staff for CQC assessments   

• Having conversations about LGBTQ+

S4 E9: We have a few lifers and don’t spend any money on recruitment!

Listen to Claire Callaghan talking about why her staff never want to leave and how she has not spent a penny on recruitment in years.  She credits this to a great recruitment process, a person-centred induction and a ‘listen to’ culture.  Claire also talks about their organisational commitment to diversity in the workplace and the support they provide around LGBTQ+, neurodiversity and menopause 

Resources

Induction toolkit (skillsforcare.org.uk) 

Data and publications (skillsforcare.org.uk) 

Using social media for care recruitment (skillsforcare.org.uk) 

S4 E8: My staff call me a Post-it person

Listen to Colin Scott talking about how he has used the Skills for Care LGBTQ+ learning framework in his care home for older people to create a culture where people can be themselves.  

Colin is the registered home manager of The Maples Residential Care Home, and he talks about  

how he has made changes throughout the service with surprising results and how he has worked to engage people, their families and the staff. Colin also encourages placements and volunteer opportunities for younger people and discusses how this benefits his service 

Resources 

• Confident with difference 
• LGBTQ+ learning framework 
• LGBTQ+ Good and practice webinar 
• LGBTQ+ Inclusion in the workplace course  

S4 E7: The Single Assessment Framework represents an opportunity’

Hear from Isabel De La Haye, a recently qualified solicitor who talks a lot about the new CQC assessment and shares her tips on how you can prepare for any forthcoming assessment by understanding your current position. She talks about the importance of checking the factual accuracy of your CQC report and understanding how your rating is created.  

Resources:

• Data Security and Protection eLearning - Digital Care Hub 
• Digital Care Hub - Run by social care providers for social care providers. 
•  Digital, data and technology (skillsforcare.org.uk) 
• Integration (skillsforcare.org.uk) 
• Local networks for managers (skillsforcare.org.uk) 

S4 E6: Recognise it, record it, evidence it

Maddie Watts, the owner and Registered manager of the outstanding rated Inchwater home care chats to us about the preparation she is doing for assessment under the new single assessment framework and how to evidence good practice for CQC. Maddie talks about evidencing feedback of partnership working with other professionals and the benefits of reflective conversations to the continuous improvement journey. 

Resources

• Go Guide: Single Assessment Framework edition (skillsforcare.org.uk) 
• Inspection toolkit (skillsforcare.org.uk) 
• Being prepared for CQC inspection seminar (skillsforcare.org.uk)