
BEST PRACTICE SPONSOR 2020
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
28 | W & P ASSESSMENT & TRAINING CENTRE
time of change. We realised that this
was an opportunity to fill another gap
in the sector, particularly for small
and medium-sized businesses, which
were facing new regulations and a
newregulator.
As the business expanded, so did our
need for quality trainers. Experienced
in health and social care management,
our trainers can empathise with
the owners and managers of care
providers, empowering them to
lead their teams to greater things.
Gradually, we built a group of skilled
and experienced associates throughout
the country.
Over the last decade, this network has
enabled us to support new providers to
register and set up, as well as helping
existing providers to improve and
grow. We continually work to keep
the cost of our services down, so we
can reach as many as possible at a
time when other costs are increasing
and funding is, at best, static or in
many cases falling. Through this
change and challenge, our aims remain
to help providers think creatively
when delivering quality person-
centred care, improve the quality of
life for those using the services and
enable providers to meet and exceed
compliancerequirements.
A rollercoaster ride: the
changing care sector
Working in adult social care is often
described as a rollercoaster. Change
has greatly impacted the sector.
Although this has improved quality,
there remain challenges around
fairness and accessibility. Establishing
adequate social care funding is an issue
continually delayed. Equally frustrating
is the lack of a national framework and
code of conduct for adult social care
inEngland.
The social care market has changed
considerably since 1990 when the
NHS and Community Care Act was
introduced. The model of combined
health and social care began here with
subsequent legislative additions driving
further integration. This brought the
big NHS healthcare providers into
the sector, sensing an opportunity to
expand into social care. They were
aided by an overhaul of the regulator
and a change in how providers were
registered under the new Health and
Social Care Act 2008.
The new national system of regulation
was welcome, but what is still needed
is a national framework and code of
practice. This would help reduce the
extensive bureaucracy inherent in a
system in which providers work across
a multitude of care commissioners.
These include about 155 local
authorities, 146 NHS trusts and
200 hospices, all of which operate
separate contractual systems and
monitoringarrangements.
This bureaucratic hodgepodge makes
it easy to see why providers are
becoming more unwilling to develop
cross-provider, cross-county working.
Our aims
remain to help
providers think
creatively
when
delivering care,
improve the
quality of life
for those using
the services
and enable
providers to
meet and
exceed
compliance
requirements
“
“
Margaret, Business
Support Director
Lisa, Sales and
Operations Manager
29W & P ASSESSMENT & TRAINING CENTRE |
In contrast, a national commissioning
board operating under a national
framework and code of practice
could standardise fees and contracts,
saving millions. Such standardised fees
could have a regional top-up where
deemed necessary, although the
National Minimum Wage and national
registration fees make it arguable as
to whether this would be needed.
Similar cost benefits could be achieved
with standardised service specifications
and monitoring systems: it baffles us
that every local authority still has a
contracts monitoring section when
there is a national regulator.
This structure would be fairer and
more transparent. It would stop local
authorities commissioning services that
cannot deliver quality and choice. It
would reduce the costs to providers
and help create a level playing field.
Importantly, it would enable the sector
to plan for the long-term provision
ofcare.
A misunderstood sector
Older people are often portrayed as
a burden. This is demonstrably false,
as any comparison between local
authority adult care and children’s
services budgets will show. Adult
budgets cover many more individuals
and are supplemented by the fees paid
by service recipients.
Take one theoretical example, Council
A. Council A spends £102 million
on adult social care, serving 2,341
people and recouping £28.3 million
in fees. In contrast, Council A spends
£72.3 million on children’s services,
with only 431 recipients who make
no contribution to costs. Surely these
figures show the negative media
portrayal of the sector is unwarranted
while also demonstrating a system that
is unfair and unfit for purpose.
With an annual turnover of just under
£500,000, we are small but perfectly
formed to support our customers
in meeting the challenges of, and
changes to, adult social care provision.
In 2020, legislative and regulatory
changes will continue, and we will be
continuing to work hard to empower
managers in adult social care not
merely to be good but outstanding.
It baffles us
that every
local authority
still has a
contract
monitoring
section when
there is a
national
regulator
“
“
Lee, Telesales Executive
Helen, Learning and
Resource Co-ordinator
Keith, Business
Development Director