Many of our team members have had first-hand experience working on the frontline, we’ve walked in your shoes, faced the challenges you face, and celebrated the victories of providing good care. This wealth of experience has shaped the Nourish Care platform into what it is today and gives us unparalleled insight into the sector and allows us to deliver a digital care records platform that truly makes a difference. 

The care experience in the Nourish team ranges from carers and activity coordinators to registered nurses and registered managers. The importance of having care experience is essential throughout our team and has shaped our team with the introduction of roles such as Clinical Lead and Safety Officer. We also have team members with nursing and care experience including Quality Assurance. In addition, our Customer Success teams truly put the impact and outcomes for people supported by care at the forefront of everything we do. 

Nourish founder and CEO, Nuno Almeida spent time working in care services before the idea of Nourish had been formed. He saw care teams struggling to find time to fit their handwritten notes into their already tremendously busy day and how sometimes issues that needed to be reported slipped the net because there was no opportunity to record those concerns in the moment. He saw how many notes needed to be written to record every care interaction and to prepare for the always-looming CQC inspection. 

Nourish began with the mission to give those receiving care a voice and input on the care they receive and to give the team supporting them time to deliver truly person-centred care. 

“I volunteered with a care home and I was just a Portuguese chap that had a good enough English, able to come on in and help us with baking competitions on a Wednesday for example. When I started spending time in care homes, it became very obvious that care workers were writing a hell of a lot of notes. It is clear that carers genuinely have caring as a vocation but aren’t always confident writing notes and this can really remove motivation or joy out of the job they do. That’s where the idea of Nourish came from.” Nuno Almeida, Nourish founder and CEO.  

There are things you learn while working in care that can only come from that environment. From small details like how much it costs to use agency carers and how the shifts run. To more significant issues such as statistics around falls. And how knowing essential information about a person receiving care immediately can change how a person experiences care. The Nourish team started out their careers in the sector in a variety of different care services and job roles. Which means as a team we have great coverage of the sector. We can and regularly use our experiences to enhance our abilities at Nourish. 

“I have only ever worked in Care and cannot imagine working in another field. I worked as both a care coordinator and a registered manager. Both job roles gave me an insight into the pain points that care providers experience in their day to day. As well as how digital platforms can support you in providing person-centred, safe, quality care.

“I draw upon my experience providing care everyday when supporting my users as a Customer Success Manager. Whether that’s training them on how to fully utilise the rostering and scheduling or supporting managers to run reports from the system in line with their compliance. If you have worked in care you will know the feeling of joy you get at the end of the day knowing you have made a difference in someone’s life. I still get that feeling now knowing I am helping my customers provide an impactful, safe and person-centred service.” – Jessica Atkinson, 10 years’ experience in care, Customer Success Manager at Nourish.

We know the importance of the little things. We know the difference between feeding someone lunch and assisting someone to eat their lunch. The crucial difference between giving someone a choice regarding the care they receive and assigning care based on an assumption. We know the importance of personalising care notes over the same text being copy and pasted. We know because we have experienced it first-hand.  

“Each time I deliver a Nourish training session, people will want to know how a certain feature relates to their sector specifically. By being able to personally draw on a large number of previous experiences across a multitude of care and support sectors, this helps the people being trained to use Nourish more effectively as I ‘get’ what they are needing. This creates a mutual trust pretty quickly and those being trained know that they will get what they need to put Nourish into action in their services.” Jason Hengler, 29 years experience in care, Trainer and Project Manager at Nourish. 

Working in the health and social care sector is a skill that regularly goes underappreciated. The narrative surrounding the sector is often negative and the selfless hard work that goes on largely goes ignored. Many of our team have worked in care and know that it is so much more than its reputation. Health and social care is a rewarding career with a clear career path. It relies on emotional intelligence, the ability to build relationships and spot signs of change. Our experience in care has given us the ability to communicate effectively with and about the people you support. We cherish the first-hand experience in the feeling that comes with delivering great person-centred care.  

Nourish exists to ensure that care teams are given the opportunity to provide the best care they can by reducing administrative burdens, enhancing communication across the whole team and giving carers back time to spend on person-centred care.  

“As a Community Team Manager previously, my journey has been a blend of compassion and adaptation to the digital age. Transferable skills and experiences have enabled me to have a deep understanding and empathy to the needs of my customers and this has ensured that I am able to suit their needs as a Customer Success Manager in a more effective and speedy manner. Working for Nourish has allowed me to tap into my experience within the home care environment. As I have experience as a care coordinator, a carer and a manager, I am able to adapt and tailor my training sessions and support to ensure that the content is relevant for the individual.” Katie Loader, 5 years’ experience in care, Key Customer Success Manager at Nourish.

Because so many of us have worked in care, we know that each service is truly unique in its approach and working ways and that is why Nourish is unique and a leader in the digital social care sector. Nourish is customisable and can be tailored to your care service’s needs entirely to ensure your care service retains what is unique about it.  

“Having been involved in a family run care home from a young age gave me a respect and understanding for the sector like no other. Knowing the pressures, the pain points and the sheer variation of the day to day really helps when thinking ‘is this new feature in the platform going to work in practice‘. The team will often hear me repeating the same thing ‘benefit vs burden’ and that comes from understanding the sector. Here at Nourish, we don’t just create a product, we genuinely aim to improve the lives of the manager, the carer and most of all the person receiving support.” Dan Hollingworth, 10 years experience in care, Product Owner at Nourish. 

“My experience of working in care homes helps me to understand the daily struggles carers face. That everything is documented correctly. That everyone has had their care delivered properly. That medication has been administered at the correct times. That tasks have been completed, all within a particular timescale for multiple clients with different needs. I try to use that experience every day to make sure we deliver a quality product. One that alleviates the stresses that come with being a carer so they can offer great support for their clients.” Curtis Cridland, 5 years experience in care, Senior Quality Assurance Engineer at Nourish.

Find out more about how Nourish can enhance the care you provide by booking a personalised demo with our team. 

Technology is an innovative and interruptive force felt across the world, its application as varied as its interpretation. These interpretations have presented themselves across health and social care, in pursuit of better patient outcomes, productivity and connectivity. Noble aims, but a focus on results can cause us to lose sight of the journey. An especially concerning effect for us in the world of social care. A world where the journey matters far more than the destination.

Lorcán Murray, our Marketing Manager, participated in an industry panel discussion at Care Roadshows Glasgow. Focussed on the importance of balancing technology and human connection. The panel consisted of Quality Compliance Systems Head of Social Care Content Lindsay Rees, Scottish Care’s Technology and Digital Innovation Lead Nicola Cooper, Abbey Court’s Care Home Manager Brian Murray and Activist Peter Hope. A verified buffet of experience and perspectives from which we have drawn these five informative morsels.

Scottish Care has been working hard to support social care in Scotland and help guide its development and effectiveness. A key part of their support for people engaging with technology in care has been the development of their Care Technologist role. A Care Technologist is someone who helps people trial new technology in their care, and find out what solutions would be the most effective for them. This provides the user with an opportunity to test technology and provide feedback on its effectiveness. An endeavour that firmly roots technology in human experience. Providing a resource for the continued improvement of technological initiatives in social care.

Peter Hope had himself experienced the benefits of working with a Care Technologist when introducing new technology into his life. He also made a point of detailing the value of involving people in each step of the process. The difference between offering someone a cup of tea, and going with them to the kitchen to make it together. Self actualisation is at the heart of care, where dignity is experienced and shared in equal measure for all participants. By involving people throughout the process we, in the words of Scottish Care’s CEO Dr Macaskill, “make room for dignity to flourish,” and avoid the trapping of technological advancement purely for the sake of efficiency.

When people bring technology into their care, or really introduce measures of any kind, it is always with the aim of improving their service. However, a common mistake is waiting for these improvements to show up on the ‘eye test’. Establishing the standard of your service before you introduce new technology is crucial, as it establishes a baseline for you to measure your new initiatives against. Otherwise, you can spend far too long trying to work out the specifics of the success and the shortcomings of the changes you implement.

Where you begin your change is as important as the change itself. While decisions are traditionally made at the top of a company, they will never be successful when said success is determined by their ability to trickle down through your company’s processes and positions. Whether it is new monitoring equipment or management software, it must be implemented from the bottom up to ensure it reaches every part of your service and those who rely upon it.

Finally, and most crucially, the power of Why? With new technology so frequently the focus is on more tangible questions; How do we use this system? Where do we apply it? Who is in charge of it? Throughout the onboarding process of any new technology the most fundamental question that everyone in your company and using your service must know the answer to is: Why?

When people know the purpose of their efforts, when people understand the ambition of the new initiatives that are taking root in vital areas of their lives, it is far easier to implement, understand and benefit from technology. Too often we are told simply how, what, when and where. Ensure everyone involved in your service understands why new technology is being brought in, and your chances of success increase significantly, while your ability to get lost down rabbit holes and in the weeds is considerably reduced. When you know why you started something, you also know when to stop an unsuccessful initiative.

These are our five key takeaways from our time on the panel in Glasgow. A thoroughly enjoyable and informative experience, and one we look forward to undertaking again at Care Roadshows Liverpool on the 25th of May.

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Social Care is going through one of its most challenging periods in history. Everyday frontline workers put themselves at risk to help support the most vulnerable amongst us. Care agencies are doing everything they can to support their staff. However with increasingly vulnerable service users, limited funding and PPE supply chain frustrations, it is a Herculean task. 

The COVID-19 crisis has made the public far more aware of social care’s structural issues. And yet, these are issues over which the United Kingdom Home Care Association (UKHCA) has been hounding the government for years. As the sector’s cornerstone of information and representation, the UKHCA fights a daily battle to support social care’s critical providers. We spoke with Dr Jane Townson, CEO of UKHCA, to find out more about social care’s access to funding and PPE during the current pandemic.

The UKHCA has been a longstanding bulwark of the care agencies that constitute its membership. Right now the organisation’s primary focus is securing funding and PPE for social care during COVID-19. Dr Jane Townson explains: 

“(The Government’s) £1.6 billion is supposed to be to strengthen care for vulnerable people. Some of that has got to be used for homelessness, but the bulk of it should be for frontline social care services. How much of it has actually made its way to any social care providers yet? Virtually none. And that’s what we’re spending most of our time trying to sort out.”

Things have become particularly tough for an industry that was already running on empty. A National Living Wage increase of 6.25% kicked in on April 1st. Yet according to reports from UKHCA members, 60% of local authorities are yet to reflect that increase in the rates they pay to providers for delivering care. On top of that, the arrival of COVID-19 has further exacerbated social care’s lack of funding. 

“The amount local authorities pay for homecare is not enough in general,” Townson says. “Many companies are struggling with extremely low margins. One CEO was telling me this morning that he’s calculated that the cost of PPE alone is an extra £2.50 per hour of care delivered at the moment. In his case the sick pay is coming out at £1.16 per hour extra. And his absence rates aren’t as high as they are in other companies. That’s already £3.66 an hour more than normal, never mind the increase in the National Living Wage.

“The UKHCA calculates the UK minimum price of homecare. We calculated from the first of April that the minimum price would be £20.69 an hour. We captured some data from our members on the week of the 23rd of March. The average fee rate was coming out at £17 pounds. So they are already £4 beneath where they need to be just to be compliant with National Living Wage. Never mind talking about extra cost on top.”

UKHCA has been working closely with the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) to try and address the most pressing issues.

“At the beginning of March, we emailed them and said: ‘Would you be willing to do some joint guidance for local authorities on how to support providers during COVID-19?’ They agreed and some guidance was issued on the 13th of March. That went to all local authorities…which mostly ignored it”, Dr Townson said. 

The guidance focussed on three key areas. First, a fee uplift to cover the increase in the national living wage. Secondly, to start paying providers on planned commission work, rather than in arrears as standard. Thirdly, to provide a temporary uplift to cover the additional costs that have arisen due to COVID-19. These would include: PPE, sick pay, as well as remote working and travel costs where relevant. 

Trying to get Local Authorities to pay attention to their guidance has proven difficult for UKHCA. 

“Local Authorities have been given the money – it’s sitting in their bank accounts,” Townson says. “But they don’t want to send it out to providers for reasons best known to themselves. We’ve been putting a lot of pressure on LGA and ADASS to try and get them to force their members to do what’s right. But they say they’re a member organisation: all they can do is give them strong guidance. They (LGA and ADASS) said they want the opportunity to work with their members first. They’ve said, ‘give us a list of the ones that aren’t behaving’. The Minister for Care is also very actively engaged with this issue. 

“So the plan is: raising concerns with ADASS and LGA about the councils that are doing nothing. If that doesn’t work, go to the Minister for Care in the Department of Health to personally phone them up. Then if that doesn’t work we go to the media to name and shame them. We have already given notice on everybody that the timescale for that process isn’t going to be a long time. It’s already the 9th of April. If the National Living Wage went up on the first of April, what possible excuse is there for them not addressing that?”

That may seem like a drastic plan, but it could be exactly what is called for in our drastic circumstances. And Townson certainly sees the urgency: 

“The provider market could collapse quite quickly because it can’t sustain these kinds of additional costs and be able to meet payroll. Especially with the fee rises they’re paying. No money means insolvency, and then (issues like) PPE become irrelevant because everyone’s business has collapsed. This really, really needs to be sorted.”

PPE shortages have been reported from the majority of care agencies. A BBC poll from last week found 80% of the 500 care agencies they surveyed are running out of supplies. In response, the Government is implementing some solutions.

The initial step was a letter sent to providers last week from the Department of Health. It outlined four companies who had been instructed to exclusively supply social care. The demand, of course, quickly went off the scale. 

“The inevitable happened,” Townson explains, “their lines got jammed. They couldn’t reply to emails and phone calls. Anyway, they’ve hardly got enough supplies as it is. So they have apparently been rationing what they give to care providers to 300 masks each. But they are also insisting on minimum orders so people are having to spend money on other stuff that they don’t need just to get the 300 face masks, so that’s not very good.”

The government is also preparing a parallel supply chain to the standard NHS supply chain to meet the urgent requirements of social care. The NHS Supply Chain set up this joint effort between them, the Ministry of Defence, Unipart Logistics and supported by Clipper Logistics. It will be for both acute and community hospital trusts and mental health and ambulance trusts. On top of that, it is also meant to service social care. 

“The supply chain isn’t up and running yet,” Townson says. “We learnt on Tuesday that they’re going to requisition all of the PPE that’s currently in the ‘business-as-usual’ supply chain with the business-as-usual suppliers. So all of the PPE suppliers that normally supply homecare companies are going to find they have no stock because it’s all been requisitioned.”

Far from being a logistical solution, Townson sees a logistical nightmare:

“I have no idea how that’s going to work: 18,000 care agencies all trying to register for an account, ordering stuff and then getting it delivered. I just don’t know how that can be done, we’ll see, but that’s what they’re doing.”

The third step the Government has taken in response to PPE shortages is an emergency drop to local resilience forums. This will be a route by which providers can access PPE. However, UKHCA has been told that this will be ‘very much emergency stock’. Which, of course, raises the question of what is an emergency, and how much stock does it warrant releasing?

“They said: ‘Oh yeah it’s going to be like, nine and a half million face masks, and 8 million aprons’,” Towson recalls. “Well, that is only going to last 2-3 days!”

There is no completely accurate data available on the number of people receiving private care. Based on available information, the UKHCA estimates there are 1,000,000 people receiving care at normal times. These people would normally receive between 1-4 visits a day. Providing care to people at this rate would quickly exhaust the 7.8 million pieces of PPE the government has already provided, leading either to equipment re-use (and the possibility of viral transfer), or to care workers delivering care whilst unprotected themselves. 

It’s clear, however, that despite logistical difficulties and financial irregularities, these are challenging times for all involved. While Dr Townson is critical of the support Local Authorities have provided up to this point, she appreciates their position.

“If you think about it Local Authorities have a lot to do generally. They are worried about things like food, homelessness, schools, isolation. There are a lot of things they’re responsible for.

“I don’t think it’s that they’re not working hard, I just don’t think that they’re focussed on social care. We have heard some good stories. In Carmarthenshire, they have offered an inflationary uplift for providers. They’re also paying on commissioned care from a particular date in March. Additionally for every hour of care delivered they’re paying a pound an hour extra to help cover the extra costs. Some of them are doing the right thing, but at the moment the vast majority of them are not.” 

UKHCA has grown accustomed to fighting the Government for change on behalf of social care providers. But what was once a more private crusade has become a very public battle. Dr Townson believes that this will raise public awareness of how vital social care is to our social fabric:

“I think people are waking up to realising what’s going on,” she says.

COVID-19 has brought to the fore issues that those within social care have been anticipating for years. Voices for change have long been loud, but little been heard. The new attention that social care is set to receive is welcome, although there are very real fears that the sector will continue to remain ‘the Cinderella service’

Though as Dr Townson points out:  

“At least Cinderella had an apron.”

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eRostering (also written e-Rostering) is a term, popularised by the NHS, to describe the use of electronic rostering or rota scheduling systems for care. The scope of such an e-Rostering system encompasses management information about shift patterns, annual leave, sickness absence, staff skill mix, appointment/task details and locations of both appointments and each member of staff at any one time.

Holding all this data in one place, rotas can be created more efficiently than ever before. To do this, skills and availability are matched to appointment requirements.  Consequently, electronic rostering improves both efficiency and quality of care.

e-Rostering is rapidly replacing traditional approaches to rostering throughout social care. As care providers are challenged to achieve higher standards of care with fewer staff and tighter budgets, many look to systems improvements to reach elevated efficiency targets.

Finding the right e-rostering platform for your service can transform your processes. We have helped care providers of all shapes and sizes reduce costs, improve efficiency and focus on outcomes.

e-Rostering brings together previously disparate data sources, such as appointment scheduling, tracking, timesheet and invoicing data and removes the need to manually copy this from one system to another and match to individuals in each. Centralising and consolidating data in this way, vastly improves accuracy and processing times.

eRostering systems, such as Nourish, go beyond simple consolidation, to automate data processing and reporting requirements.  Consequently, it’s possible to produce accurate and professional invoices (taking travel time, mileage and exact call time into account) at the touch of a button.

Efficiency improvements like this have enabled organisations to save money, simplify processes and improve the quality of the care they provide. You can read more about how Nourish works with care providers in our case studies.

The CQC recognises the role of digital record systems in providing good quality care. With the new single assessment framework the CQC will increasingly expect a good provider to comply with the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) or equivalent, as a minimum. This also applies where you use a combination of digital and paper record systems.

Digitisation has the power to improve care when applied appropriately. At Nourish we have years of experience working with providers of all shapes and sizes and supporting them on their digital journey.

If the above points resonate with you and you’d like to find out more about CarePlanner as an eRostering solution for your care agency, feel free to contact us directly here.