In this guest blog, Homecare Association affiliate members CQC Experts look at the benefits of hiring a Compliance Expert to help you with your homecare service.
Whether you have been providing care services for some time or you are in the process of setting up as a new provider, you will have had some interaction with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to ensure that the services you provide or intend to provide meet required standards of quality and compliance.
So why might you work with a Compliance Expert?
Wading through the regulations and requirements is a time-consuming task. Employing an expert to share the workload means you can focus on the primary task of providing high quality care to those who need care and support and work towards improving outcomes.
It may be that you have been through an inspection and have action points to address. You may be dealing with a safeguarding issue, or want to address performance issues within your team.
You may want an easier way to track and manage your COVID-19 and IPC compliance as the guidance continues to change. A Compliance Expert can help ensure that your policies and procedures are appropriate and of a high quality.
Lastly, it will give you confidence that your staff are being supported in the right way to enable them to provide the best care possible.
How can a Compliance Expert help you through the CQC registration and compliance process?
As an existing supplier it’s hard to know that you are reaching the right standards and how to go about this. If you are new to providing care services, a Compliance Expert will be able to take you through the whole set up process and maintenance of the services you will provide.
They take the headache out of the registration process which can be time consuming and overwhelming for those new to homecare
What to look for in a Compliance Expert?
- The people best placed to help you, are the people that have had first-hand experience of working in the care sector. They will have seen it from the other side and what good looks like.
- Have they got an online tool that gives you easy access to your updated documents?
- Policies and procedures that are easy to understand, particularly for your staff. When care is your priority, easy to follow documentation is key so that it can be understood easily and quickly and you can be confident that best practice is implemented across the team.
- That the terminology is fit for purpose.
- What level of support do you actually need? If you feel you need more hand holding to get you through the process, look for a supplier that provides a more personalised service. If you only need a bit of guidance, a Compliance Expert can point you in the right direction and give you feedback if you feel ‘stuck’ at a particular part of the process.
Other things to consider
The recent White Paper on Social Care Reform; ‘People at the Heart of Care’, proposes moving away from relying on residential care and ensuring outstanding care can be delivered at home, with realistic options to enable those that need care and support to have better choice and control over the care they receive. Therefore, Domiciliary Care is in high demand at the moment and as there’s not enough supply to meet this demand, these applications are moving through the system quickly at the moment.
Do you need legal support? Some Compliance Experts work with legal experts so that all aspects of Employment Law and Good Governance are covered whether that be in either a proactive or a reactive way
Homecare Association affiliate members CQC Experts can be contacted via their website and via 01462 222600.
The Homecare Association can accept no liability for advice, services or products offered or provided by third parties. Inclusion on this blog does not imply endorsement by the Association of the opinions contained in the blog.
