The biggest free care show of spring is nearly here! Join us at Health Plus Care: The Residential and Home Care Show at ExCeL London on Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th April.
Pick up useful tips for your service, listen to thought provoking debates and discover new solutions to help improve the care and support you provide. Nourish Care will be on-hand at stand D22 to show you our digital care planning platform and answer any questions you may have about going digital and what funding is available for you to digitalise your care records.
As well as being on stand D22, Nourish are participating in a number of talks across both days.
Wednesday 26th April | 11.00am – 11.30am | Technology Theatre
Nourish Care will present the journey of ‘Joe’, a young man with learning disabilities, walking through the current and future impact of the transformative adoption of digital care records. Join Nourish as we talk through the holistic transition away from paper to a digital platform and how this can impact your entire care service and the people you support.
Wednesday 26th April | 15:30pm – 16:15pm | People & Business Theatre
The VIVALDI Social Care Study‘s mission is to improve the quality of life for people living, visiting, and working in care homes, while also reducing the risk of infections and avoiding hospital admissions. They endeavour to achieve this through the study that utilises existing data, with minimal input required from care home providers.
With Nourish CEO, Nuno Almeida part of the panel, on day one of the show, the VIVALDI study will be officially launched at 3:30pm in the People & Business Theatre followed by drinks and canapes in The Outstanding Society Learning Lounge where care services can sign up to be part of the study.
Thursday 27th April | 11.30am – 12pm | The Outstanding Society Learning Lounge
Join The Outstanding Society and Nourish as we discuss falls management in care services. In 2017, the Public Health Outcomes Framework reported that 220,160 emergency hospital admissions were related to a fall in the over 65 age group. A fall can have enormous repercussions to someone’s life, affecting their mobility, independence and health.
Meet the Nourish team on stand D22 of Health Plus Care so we can show you our digital care records platform and answer any questions you may have about going digital. We look forward to seeing you there!
If you are unable to attend The Residential & Home Care Show, book a free personalised demo with us today.
You may be interested in:
Easter is here and bringing with it plenty of opportunities to make it memorable for the people you support.
Decorating Easter bonnets does not have to be limited to the school classroom. Why not hold an Easter bonnet competition for the people you support. If you have a connection with a local school, you could host their Easter bonnet parade or invite a class of children to make bonnets with the people you support. This activity is both reminiscent of childhood pastimes and a booster of self-esteem, a stress reliever and just plain fun! Community connections are essential for those living in a care setting as it reduces social isolation and maintains interests and relationships with the wider community.
Create centrepieces for Sunday lunch on Easter Sunday with the people you support by painting wooden, ceramic, or polystyrene eggs to sit in nests on the tables. Or arrange vases of daffodils with spring-coloured ribbons. You could even decorate the shared dining areas with bunting, cutlery, and placemats. This would be considered activities of daily living and goes a long way to promote independence and enjoyment, particularly for those who were keen homemakers.
A tradition first started in 1898, sending Easter cards with messages of Christianity is still important to some members of the church. Sending a handmade card is an easy, simple way to make someone’s day and for some, a longstanding tradition they had perhaps lost. But the cards do not have to be religious, they can simply be messages of well wishing.
Nest cakes and Easter biscuits are a traditional homemade treat alongside Easter eggs. As we come out of the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, activities involving food can be reintroduced into your care setting. However, if this still feels too soon or there are other challenges in traditional baking, there are alternatives to actual baking you can try. Decorating pre-made biscuits or cakes or decorating chocolate eggs with icing and melted chocolate are fun and delicious alternatives. This method is not only more COVID-friendly but also provides the opportunity for 1:1 attention.
If any of the people you support follow Christianity, you could invite a local church to host an Easter service or visit a church for a service. Enabling the people you support to continue activities in the wider community that are important to them is integral to wellbeing. Ensure you cater to all religious holidays observed in April, including Passover for Jehovah’s Witnesses and Ramadan for Islam.
If the people you support and your colleagues have children amongst their friends and family, why not host a family fun day. You could hold an Easter egg hunt, arts and crafts stations, an egg and spoon race and if the weather is nice, a BBQ or a picnic. Ensure you take lots of photos (with permission) and use the photos for reminiscence activities in the future. Facilitating and encouraging close relationships will not only benefit the people you support but their family and friends as well.
Don’t forget to tag @NourishCare on social media if you use any of our activity ideas!
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In March, there a number of events across the country for care services to find out more about Nourish and why using a digital social care records platform is beneficial to your care delivery. Some events are ICS focused, for care services in specific areas to find out about what funding is available in their region. Other events are open to all care services in all areas to find out more about the benefits of using a digital social care records platform. Nourish will be attending the events listed below to give insight into relevant topics, demonstrations of our platform and answer any questions you may have about digital transformation.
The Adult Social Care Transformation Fund is supporting the Government aim of having all (but at least 80%) of CQC registered adult social care providers to use digital care records by March 2024. Registered care providers are now able to apply for grant funding from their local Integrated Care System (ICS) which will pay for 50% of their annual license fee for a Digital Social Care Record (DSCR) system such as Nourish. Find out more about the funding here.
On Wednesday 1st March at the Hilton Northampton, we will be attending the Northamptonshire Registered Managers Conference.
The sold out conference for registered managers in Northamptonshire gives managers a chance to network with other managers and share knowledge. The conference includes sessions from PainChek, Gabriella O’Keefe (ICB) and more, as well as a panel discussion.
The East Midlands “Connecting Together” Care Home Celebration Event aims to bring together care services in the East Midlands to celebrate the fantastic work and share valuable learning between peers.
On Thursday 2nd March, we will be attending the event at the Trent Vineyard Conference Centre by The East Midlands Patient Safety Collaborative. If you’re attending, pop by the Nourish stand to find out about our digital social care records platform and how we can help you access funding.
On Friday 3rd March, Bradford Care Association have organised an online webinar to enable care providers in Bradford to find out more about Assured Suppliers and how Nourish can support you in making the switch to digital care planning.
You’ll be able to find out more about the funding and how you can digitalise your care records. Our team can show you our platform, discuss what going digital means and outline all the benefits that come with going digital.
Join Nourish CEO Nuno Almeida, Oli Johnson from Sona and Geraint Thomas from Guided Innovation for an in-depth discussion on how technologies can support frontline teams to deliver the best care possible. Technology is becoming increasingly present in care settings as providers digitise, but many are missing out on an opportunity to make care-focused staff a central part of that transformation. They will also explore the growing importance of employee empowerment in modern care delivery.
Held on Thursday 9th March, this webinar is open to all care providers who are interested in finding out more about the impact of technology on frontline teams.
To give all care services in the Derbyshire more information about the funding available, Joined Up Care Derbyshire are hosting the event ‘Introduction to Digital Social Care – Drop In Event’ on Thursday 9th March, 10am – 2.30pm, at the Post Mill Centre, in South Normanton.
You’ll be able to find out more about the funding and how you can digitalise your care records. We will also be exhibiting, and our team can show you our platform, discuss what going digital means and outline all the benefits that come with going digital.
On Monday 13th & Tuesday 14th March, we will be attending the National Care Forum Managers Conference in the Leonardo Hotel Hinckley Island.
Hosted by NCF and Skills for Care, and in collaboration with ARC England, this sold out conference champions and supports the crucial role of managers in adult social care. It will bring together managers from across the country to share knowledge, ask questions and network with colleagues. The programme includes a mix of main plenary sessions and practical workshops, as well as panel discussions where managers will hear from others in similar roles.
On Thursday 16th March, we will be attending the Care England Conference, held in the Church House Conference Centre in Westminster London.
The conference will be of interest to all residential and domiciliary care providers, especially owners, directors and senior managers who support older people and those with dementia, learning disabilities and long term conditions. Non-Care England members are also welcome.
Held in the NEC Birmingham on Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd March, UK Care Week aims to bring together the care community and address the biggest challenges facing the care sector today.
Nourish will attending on Stand F52 to answer any and all questions about digital transformation and the NHSE funding available.
If you’re unable to attend any events or would like to know more how Nourish can benefit your care service, book your free personalised demo today!
The Adult Social Care Transformation Fund is supporting the Government aim of having all (but at least 80%) of CQC registered adult social care providers to use digital care records by March 2024. Registered care providers are now able to apply for grant funding from their local Integrated Care System (ICS) which will pay for 50% of their annual license fee for a Digital Social Care Record (DSCR) system such as Nourish. Find out more about the funding here.
Nourish are working in partnership with the 42 Integrated Care Systems (ICS) across England, to support you with accessing this funding and to make the transition from paper to digital as smooth and easy as possible.
In February there are a number of events across the country where ICS’ will provide more information about the funding and how to access it. Nourish will also be attending these events so you can find out more about digital care planning.
To give all care services in the West Midlands more information about the funding, Black Country ICS and Birmingham and Solihull ICS are hosting the event ‘Digitising Social Care Information and Marketplace’ on Thursday 2nd February, 10am – 4pm, at Bescot Stadium, Walsall.
You’ll be able to find out more about the funding and how you can digitalise your care records. Digital care planning platforms, including ourselves at Nourish, will also be exhibiting where we can show you our platform, discuss what going digital means and all the benefits that come with going digital.
To get you started on your digital journey, Hampshire Care Association are hosting the event ‘All Things Digital The One Stop Shop’ on Wednesday 8th February, 9.30am – 2pm, at the Kings Community Church in Hedge End. Digital care planning platforms, including ourselves at Nourish, will also be exhibiting where we can show you our platform and discuss all the benefits that come with going digital.
To give all care services in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West more information about the funding, the ICS are hosting an online webinar on Wednesday 8th February 2023.
You’ll be able to find out more about the funding and how you can digitalise your care records. We will also give a demonstration of the Nourish platform, showing what going digital means and all the benefits that come with being digital. Nourish will be on the webinar between 16.20 and 16.50.
To give all care services in Lincolnshire more information about the funding, the ICS are hosting an online webinar on Wednesday 9th February 2023, 10am – 11am.
You’ll be able to find out more about the funding and how you can digitalise your care records. We will give a demonstration of our platform showing what going digital means and all the benefits that come with being digital.
Register for the event by emailing denise.tack@nourishcare.co.uk
We are working in partnership with South West London ICS and South East London ICS, to support care providers in their remit with accessing this funding and to make the transition from paper to digital as smooth and easy as possible.
The ICS’s are hosting the event ‘Digitising Social Care Engagement‘ for South London care services on Wednesday 15th February 2023, 10am – 5pm, at Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre in London.
You’ll be able to find out more about the funding and how you can digitalise your care records. Digital care planning platforms, including ourselves at Nourish, will also be exhibiting and demoing. Our team can show you our platform, discuss what going digital means and outline all the benefits that come with going digital.
‘The Adult Social Care Transformation Fund is supporting the Government aim of having all (but at least 80%) of CQC registered adult social care providers to use digital care records by March 2024. Registered care providers are now able to apply for grant funding from their local Integrated Care System (ICS) which will pay for 50% of their annual license fee for a Digital Social Care Record (DSCR) system such as Nourish. Find out more about the funding here.
Nourish are working in partnership with the 42 Integrated Care Systems (ICS) across England, to support you with accessing this funding and to make the transition from paper to digital as smooth and easy as possible
In January there are a number events across the country where ICS’s will provide more information about the funding and how to access it. Nourish will also be attending these events so you can find out more about digital care planning.
To give all care services in Dorset more information about the funding, the Integrated Care System, Dorset ICS are hosting the event ‘Spotlight on Digital Shared Care Records’ on Tuesday 17th January 2023, 9.30am – 1.00pm, at Hamworthy Club, Magna Road, Wimborne, England, BH21 3AP.
You’ll be able to find out more about the funding and how you can digitalise your care records. Digital care planning platforms, including ourselves at Nourish, will also be exhibiting where we can show you our platform, discuss what going digital means and all the benefits that come with being digital.
Reserve your place at the event here.
To give all care services in the Black Country more information about the funding, the Integrated Care System, Black Country ICS are hosting online webinars on Wednesday 18th January, 3pm – 3.30pm and Tuesday 31st January, 2pm – 2.30pm.
You’ll be able to find out more about the funding and how you can digitalise your care records. We will also give a demonstration of our digital care planning platform Nourish, showing what going digital means and all the benefits that come with being digital.
There’s no need to book, access the webinar links here.
On 19th January 1pm – 2pm, Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICS are hosting an online webinar about the funding that is available that you can use to digitalise your care records and for a nurse call data system.
This free webinar will give an overview of the funding available as well as showcase the capabilities of Nourish Care, a digital care planning tool assured by the national programme, and NurseCall data system, NexusCare. Both Nourish Care and NexusCare can integrate with each other.
To give all care services in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough more information about the funding, the Integrated Care System, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICS are hosting an online webinar on Wednesday 25th January 2023, 12pm – 2pm.
You’ll be able to find out more about the funding and how you can digitalise your care records. Digital care planning platforms, including ourselves at Nourish, will also give demonstrations of our platforms showing what going digital means and all the benefits that come with being digital.
To reserve your place at the webinar please email ASC.Reform@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.
On Wednesday 23rd November 2022, we were proud to host the webinar ‘What Digital Data Means for the Future of Falls Prevention’ alongside the NCF and the University of Nottingham. You can view a recording of this webinar on this page.
People who live in care homes have an increased risk of falling. Falls are common, harmful, costly, and difficult to prevent. This joint webinar covered how can we be effective and learn quickly from data insights surrounding falls prevention, what research has been done, what the future of falls prevention could look like and the impact digital data can make in the prevention of falls.
The Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) reported that in 2017 to 2018 there were around 220,160 emergency hospital admissions related to falls among patients aged 65 and over, with around 146,665 (66.6%) of these patients aged 80 and over.
This webinar was led by Nourish’s Chief Product Officer Jeremy Baldwin, and NCF’s Digital Transformation Lead Adam Hunt. Dr Fran Allen, Research Fellow from the University of Nottingham also shared insights about the Action Falls programme (formally GtACH) which trains and supports care home staff to identify the reasons why residents fall and then guides them to complete actions to reduce falls. In a large multicentre randomised controlled trial called the FinCH trial, the Action Falls Programme was cost-effective and reduced falls by 43%.
You will take away from this webinar recording:
NCF is the membership organisation for not-for-profit organisations in the care and support sector. NCF members collectively deliver more than £2.3 billion of social care support to over 218,000 people in 8,200 care and support settings. Employing more than 117,000 colleagues and 14,000 volunteers.
Adam joined NCF in January 2022 as one of our Digital Transformation Leads. Adam has previously worked in the role of Digital and Technology lead, for a large not-for-profit care provider alongside promoting and supporting the adoption of assistive and enabling technology.
Adam has also managed day and community services, co-produced person-centred support in registered settings and delivered capacity building projects for small-medium sized charities. Adam brings his passion for new and innovative tech, user-centred design and co-production to this role and wants to see a future where people who receive care are at the heart of tech solutions, enabling more choice and control about the life they choose to live.
Dr Fran Allen is a Chartered Physiotherapist and Research Fellow in the Centre for Rehabilitation and Ageing Research within the University of Nottingham Medical School. Following a clinical career specialising community rehabilitation and falls prevention, Fran completed her PhD at the University of Warwick before moving to the University of Nottingham to work as part of the Falls in Care Homes Study (FinCH) team. Fran has a special interest in falls prevention and is currently coordinating the National FinCH Implementation study and leading work looking at falls prevention in hospice care.
Nourish is a flexible digital care planning platform. With features including reporting, analytics, custom interactions and personalised timelines, the circle of care is continually informed, giving more time for person-centred care. Working with 3,500 services within a variety of care settings, Nourish is also an NHS Transformation Directorate Assured Supplier.
Jeremy is Chief Product Officer at Nourish, responsible for the roadmap and developing relationships with clinical and care experts to champion best practice standards for care. Jeremy has extensive experience in delivering transformative digital products and services in a variety of sectors. At Nourish, he focuses on how digital and data can improve the everyday challenges of providing health and social care and help transform practice across the sector as a whole.
On 12th and 13th October, we will be exhibiting at The Care Show at the NEC in Birmingham. The Care Show is free to attend for all care providers. Registration can be made here. The Care Show focuses on offering outcomes and solutions for social care providers, providing over 80 hours of sessions with experts.
We’re thrilled to be attending the show and will be on Stand H82. We would love to meet you and show you our digital care planning platform and demonstrate how Nourish could be the perfect solution for you.
Nourish founder & CEO Nuno Almeida will be on a panel titled ‘Full of Care, Free of Paper – The Digital Revolution’ with Samantha Crawley from Excelcare as chair, Zoe Fry from The Outstanding Society and Katie Thorn from Digital Social Care. This talk will be in The Outstanding Society’s Learning Lounge, located 3.15pm on Day 1 of the show. The panel will cover social care providers moving towards a digital way of working using innovative technology such as Nourish.
With most providers now using digital tools for their care records, Nuno Almeida, will share examples of how digital is supporting an integrated view of each person drawing on care and support, which is creating opportunities for improving care quality, for care providers, commissioners and regulators – but most importantly, a smoother experience for the person and their family.
Join Nuno in the Technology Theatre from 1.45pm on day 1 of the Care Show for his thought-provoking talk on the impact of digital on care quality.
The Outstanding Society have partnered with The Care Show to provide a Learning Lounge for attendees, covering topics such as the CQC KLOEs, recruitment and moving to a digital way of working.
You can find out more about The Learning Lounge here.
The Outstanding Society was set up by Camilla Thimble, who owned a care home in Dorset that was rated ‘Outstanding’ by CQC. Linking with other Outstanding rated homes, The Outstanding Society was formed to promote sharing best practice within adult social care throughout England, assisting other care services in achieving an Outstanding rating.
At Nourish, we sponsor The Outstanding Society who share our vision for empowering care teams and promoting best practise among care providers.
You can find out more about Nourish’s partnership with The Outstanding Society here.
Nuno Almeida, Founder and CEO of Nourish, hosted an interview with Martin Green, the Chief Executive of Care England at the LaingBuisson’s annual Social Care Conference, a flagship annual gathering for leaders of the sector, in Southbank, London last month.
Against a backdrop of pessimism and challenges, Nuno framed the challenges of social care not just in the context of what the sector is dealing with now, but also, the challenges the sector faces as it looks forward 20 or 30 years into the future. How can social care remain a sustainable and vibrant sector?
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Nuno Almeida, Founder and CEO of Nourish:
“The reason why I started Nourish, the reason why we’re still going, is that I believe that a digitally enabled care system is a system that has better chances of delivering better outcomes for people in the day-to-day. In the process of building this business I think I’ve learnt so much about social care that increasingly people now invite me to these things to share a little bit of what I’ve learnt, but also, perhaps a little bit of opinion and my view. And I’m going to start by setting a provocative scene:
I believe we are witnessing a remake of Dickens’ the tale of two cities. I think with inequality across society becoming bigger, we will see this reflected in social care.
I often advise people in my circle of friends and local community about setting up their own businesses. Six months ago, I met someone who came from a banking background and had setup a domiciliary care business during the pandemic. Her own assessment to me was that she felt that care workers were underpaid by about 50%. So, she decided to offer services priced adequately for the quality of service. She decided to steer clear of local authorities commissioned services. Fast forward, six months, she now employs 45 people – a phenomenal growth story. The opportunity is there to make a huge difference.
So, what I think the trends are showing is that there is a world of private pay, and a world of local authority or commissioners’ pay, and these two worlds are becoming more and more divergent.
There is a surge in self-funding which is obviously driven by early baby boomers who have buying power and expect choice, as a result of their life experience. They expect high quality. They expect highly personalised care and prices to reflect that. And there is a vibrant, innovative and resilient group of providers focused on achieving positive outcomes every day – high quality care. It’s out there and these stories need more sharing, but they are out there.
The market is extremely responsive, if you provide quality care, by professionally trained care workers you end up with success stories. These care workers are not people who will look at the local supermarket for options out of despair on pay – they are proud professional care workers who are paid appropriately. These are people that are proud of the work they do, and they will never look at the NHS as an alternative because they’re earning more than what they would be earning if they were working for the NHS – and they feel more empowered to make a difference in someone’s life.
And then we have the other side, where there is an erosion on commissioners’ ability to understand the community needs. Communities need resilience and commissioners are still trying to create markets without focusing on outcomes, and micro-managing care delivered as tasks paid for by the minute. They are focusing on lowest price, encouraging a focus on efficiencies, minutes being counted. And unfortunately, in this environment it is down to care providers again, to shape the market and educate the sector the best they can, so that commissioners can at least keep a market going with a degree of focus on quality rather than just the lowest possible price. Again, care providers are achieving this despite the headwinds, and there are a lot of examples of good care being delivered efficiently – indeed with continuous tension on pay, and continuous engagement with the wider system to ensure people do not fall through cracks (which still happens more regularly than it should).
While this is happening there is some noise in the background around how digital transformation is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the entire sector. And it is.
If we have a digitally enabled sector, we can aspire to have a global view of how those systems support people to achieve outcomes that are important to them.
It is happening with some risks. Digital Social Care Records programmes are being absorbed by NHS England, while it is going through its own restructuring. The COVID urgency, that gave us a degree of clarity of purpose in driving digital transformation across the sector, is now starting to fade. ICS’s are being created with little representation from social care providers – considering that social care is a larger sector than the NHS by many measures this is structurally wrong and has a significant risk of seeing social care being treated as an extension to the NHS and managed by boards that have several degrees of separation from care delivery – which has the potential to go horribly wrong.
My question is, isn’t what we are witnessing in social care a reflection of what society really wants from social care? The fact that our civilisation today is not clear about what we expect from social care, isn’t that our main challenge? We have two cities that are drifting apart as a result.”
Martin Green, Chief Executive of Care England:
“Well, sadly, I think it is a challenge; and I think part of our challenge is to travel from a tale of two cities to Shangri-la.
It was interesting to hear the conversations in today’s conference about how we need change but we’re not clear about a whole raft of things. Well, the first thing I think we’re not clear about is the vision for social care.
I don’t think we are clear enough about what social care does and how it transforms lives. And to the point you made that we’re seeing this differentiation between what public and private will pay and will expect – I think what we’ve got to do as a sector is close that gap. We’ve got to say every single citizen has a right to the best. It’s about changing people’s lives. It’s about enabling them to live well, it’s about giving them life chances and opportunities. It’s about how interventions at critical times can stop people going into higher dependency needs. I think what’s been missing is that we have not been very good at getting that message out that we have a vision for social care. We have had 70 years of propaganda telling us how great the NHS is. The world war created a platform where people came back and said, never again are we going to be denied access to health care. Well, I think we’ve now got to use our platform to say, people need social care because the world has changed and, they’re going to expect social care, that’s high quality and that wraps itself around their individual needs, and that is developed in a way that responds to giving them as much choice and control as possible.
And that must be our starting point for the future.”
Nuno Almeida:
“This is inspirational. This is the vision that I wish society at large would share of social care.
Whenever we start talking about social care, even in the context of COVID, when we saw photos of care workers as heroes, but this very quickly ends up boiling down to a conversation on capacity; do we have beds? Can we discharge fast enough?
How can we change that conversation? How can we, as a sector actually start being seen as an essential pillar of society, as much as so many other sectors are, such as fire services, police? Why are we different?”
Martin Green:
“Well, I think we spend too much time responding to the NHS. So, it’s all about how we discharge from the NHS. Actually, within social care, we can develop a whole range of new services, where most people don’t need to go near the NHS, and I think we need to start thinking about being creative with our business models and our models of service.
So, if you think about somebody who might be living with early onset dementia in a local area, the NHS has got nothing to offer them, but we’ve got lots that we can offer them. If we start crafting a new approach to this, we can stop people needing to go into the NHS because the NHS is built on a complete myth. And that myth is that you diagnose somebody, you treat them, and when you’ve intervened, they’re either dead or cured and that was the situation in 1948 and that is what people think about the NHS. So, if I talk about the NHS, people immediately have the perception that if they have a problem then the NHS will solve it. For lots of people, we know that’s not the case anymore.
So, what we’ve got to do is start the conversation at a different point. We’ve got to start also thinking about what we can do to make sure people don’t need to go into the NHS and think about the funding model for this, so that we’re not always dependant on going to the local authority or going to the NHS prevention budget.
We need to think what can we do to draw down resources from various pots? Some will be personal budgets, and some might be insurance driven, but we need to start thinking differently.
I had a very interesting conversation with a respiratory surgeon in America, where they are now funded for outcomes, for health interventions like we do with the NHS. But that consultant said to me that his biggest success was from installing air conditioning units in the homes of his poorer patients who couldn’t have afforded them and that was stopping them going into respiratory failure in that smoggy New York summer and avoiding hospital admissions.
Now if you tried to adopt a different policy and think holistically about health and social care services, how do we tackle some of the elements that would give people a better life? I think what we can do in social care is think about how we package up a whole raft of things. Some of it might be about our service but some of it might be about the auxiliary and support services that are available.
For example, for people who are doing home care, you will see it frequently that you’re just commissioned to do a specific task in a specific time. I have great respect for Jane Townsend (Chief Executive of the UK Home Care Association), who has argued for the end of time and task, and let’s start thinking about people and outcomes across our entire system.
At the moment we are obsessed with process and organisations. And we saw it during the pandemic. We saw endless discussion centred on the NHS as if somehow that was the solution to all problems. We all got the image of a minister standing behind a lectern and saying, stay at home, support the NHS, save lives. It would be like saying, stay at home, don’t spend money, keep the bank deposits high. It sounds silly, but that’s how we behave.
We are where we are. So, we’ve got to grasp the agenda as a sector. We’ve got to start thinking, creatively, about how we can change this model, and how we can burst through so that people know we are going to deliver them a good life underpinned by good services. That’s where we need to start with this new vision.”
Nuno Almeida:
“From my point of view, supporting people to have a good life, should be the mantra of an integrated system. After 15 years of studying social care, I still feel like an outsider – the separation between health and social care still feels profoundly artificial.
The reality is social care is much better at dealing with the other 95% of concerns that aren’t health related. Social care deals with the whole of a persons’ life – not just their health conditions. And whether a person is living in a nursing home with five comorbidities or be living at home receiving support from community services, health should not be their main concern for having a good life. And social care understands that.
Now the messaging opportunity for social care is to emphasise that social care has much better mechanisms and tools to tackle long-term conditions. So, it is true that social care is probably the only system that can do a good job at supporting a person living with dementia in leading a good life, but social care is also better geared to deal with people who have diabetes and chronic respiratory conditions, or cancer, which is increasingly a long-term condition. So, I think that social care has more answers that are essential for the future of healthcare, and the sustainability of the system depends on healthcare understanding this. How do we communicate this? And how do we allow the NHS to step down from their pedestal and allow social care to help the NHS become more sustainable – working as peers, not as a core health system with social care operating on the periphery?”
Martin Green:
“Well, it’s tough. When we’re going into ICS’s my cynical head says that I’m so old I remember joint appointments, coterminosity, joint location, I remember PCTs, I remember CCGs, they were all going to deliver the holy grail of integration.
None of them did.
But I don’t think that should mean that we say this won’t work. I think what we have to do now is roll up our sleeves and say how can we make this work?
It’s going to be tough because care providers are not engaged in ICS’s. So, we’re going to have to have sharp elbows to push our way in, and how we get some of these solutions in front of the public.
I think one of our problems is that we often just talk to the system, but let’s talk to the public. When we see that piece of news that says Mrs Gubbins had to wait for X number of months for her hip replacement, let’s go out and showcase that if Mrs Gubbins had been connected to a social care service, while she might not have had a hip replacement, she would have still maintained a quality of life, because we could have supported the degradation in quality of life which is often irreversible. So, I just think we’ve got to be much more creative about the narrative and more focused on sharing news that we can do some things which are really useful to citizens and get citizens to understand that.
And it’s about how we champion what we do. We’ve got 1.6 million people working in social care, who could be our ambassadors talking about social care at every available opportunity. The reality is that you go to a party, and somebody’s really delighted to tell you they work for the NHS, but they’re not so delighted to tell you that they work for social care. So, I guess we’ve got to do something around instilling pride in what we do in our workforce, but also give them some tools about how they present that to the world. How can we turn the party conversation around and reveal that we are care workers with pride rather than a degree of expectation that this will be met with a negative reaction.”
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This interview opened a wide range of discussions across the room which continued into late that afternoon – it was inspirational to see so many care providers approaching us to discuss further: How can we get better at managing our relationships with continuing health care (CHC)? How do you think we can use digital transformation to improve our relationships with commissioners and with ICS? How do you use Nourish and digital transformation in the context of improving staff retention? Do you have a view on how to shape our digital transformation so we can deliver the right care to each person we support in a blended self-funder and local authority paid environment? If you have any questions, get in touch about any of these topics, or other topics related to care quality improvement, digital social care records and digital transformation in health and social care.
Nourish founder and CEO, Nuno Almeida has been featured in LaingBuisson’s CareMarkets UK magazine for a Q&A. The interview details Nuno’s upbringing and background, his introduction into social care and vision for the future of Nourish and social care as a whole.
On his initial introduction to social care:
“I grew up in a small village in the centre region of Portugal. The family home had a shared boundary with the largest mental health hospital in the country – and growing up in the 1980s when the clinical practice of mental health evolved making it possible for patients to walk out and about in the community – the community kept an eye out for patients who were free to roam in the village. In the same village, there was a working farm manned by over 150 people with learning difficulties. At the time I had no idea what social care was, and I thought everyone lived in a similar environment.”
On bringing more positivity to the sector:
“We are a vibrant sector, full of brilliant, extremely resilient people, full of innovation, a sector that plays a very important role in the tapestry of our communities and our country. We need to keep our collective chins up and show this to the world consistently.”
Read the full CareMarkets interview here.
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To find out more about how Nourish can benefit your care service, book your free personalised demo today!
We’re delighted to announce that Nourish’s founder and CEO, Nuno Almeida will be speaking at a variety of events this summer.
Nuno will share his entrepreneurial journey – from market identification, idea development, building a team and positioning the company in the social care landscape, to how his team architected the business to deliver impact and value, dealing with current challenges and staying focused on good execution, versus their aspirations of contributing to a more sustainable social care sector in the long term.
You can find out more about the event and book tickets here.
As the adoption of digital tools by care teams accelerates, there are increasing reports of the positive impact that is felt by all across the sector – care workers feel more empowered, registered managers more in control and better able to manage their teams, CQC is able to inspect more effectively, and more importantly – we are creating the framework to give people choice and control.
Nuno will share his experience of leading digital transformation across a large number of care providers, the opportunity, and the challenges we need to overcome to get it right.
The Residential & Home Care Show (part of Health Plus Care) focuses on how you can improve the quality of care you offer, workforce recruitment and retention challenges, support and advice for your business weathering the pandemic storm and how you can revolutionise the care you provide through the use of data, analytics and technology.
You can find out more about the event and book tickets here.
Nuno will be speaking with Professor Martin Green, Chief Executive of Care England, about the challenges in social care as part of LaingBuisson’s Social Care Conference. The conference will hear from a variety of different speakers providing a platform to present arguments and engage in a dialogue with an audience of senior policy makers, providers, regulators and investors.
Bringing together an exceptional blend of key influencers in the sector and combining it with exclusive LaingBuisson insight and world class expertise, this is a must attend event for social care sector leaders.
You can find out more about the event and book tickets here.
Nuno will be speaking on a panel about digital transformation as part of the Care & Occupational Therapy Show. The conference will hear from a variety of different speakers and is the biggest event of its kind in the south west.
You can find out more about the event and book tickets here.
