Social care compliance: Preparing your people

Communication defines relationships. Whether personal or professional, the success of our relationships rests on our ability to communicate effectively with one another. In care this is understood clearly. Care providers go to incredible lengths to better understand, empathise and involve the people utilising support in their service. The same approach can be applied to your relationship with the regulator of your social care compliance. Regardless of the regulator of your service, talking to people to better understand the care you provide will be a central part of their inspection process. Preparing the people in your organisation for these conversations is crucial to taking control of your compliance rating. We explore how you can work on your team’s ability to communicate clearly with your regulator in this blog. Starting with your care and support team, before moving to managers and leaders, and finally central operations and quality assurance. Each of these conversations will vary in approach and focus but are unified by their ability to impact your inspection rating.  

Your care and support teams are your direct connection to your community. They interact every day with the people drawing upon your support. This gives them an intimate knowledge of the needs of your community, the processes and philosophy of your service as it is applied in action. A role that requires them to be excellent communicators. So how can you best help carers prepare for a conversation with an inspector?  

Confidence is king.  

Confidence in the care they provided, confidence in the information recorded, confidence in their approach and pride in the results. Inspectors want to see the care you provide, but they also want to ensure your carers know how and why they are providing it. Carers with a more formative role in the care development will naturally be more confident when describing it. Building this confidence over time for other carers is a matter of engaging with your team. Ask practice questions to help them familiarise themselves with the process and become more comfortable. 

Confidence with their care management system is also crucial. The right system is an accessible resource for carers to evidence their care and demonstrate their understanding. This is especially true for agency staff. Accessible records offer a level of familiarity with your service that agency staff can draw upon. Creating a continuity of care that underpins quality social care compliance. 

It’s important to remember the inspector’s perspective. Your rating is more than the evidence you provide; it is also dependent on the inspector’s ability to comprehend it. A clear and easily navigable software system can help make this information simple to access and follow for inspectors. You can offer them their own login to explore. Or have a carer guide them through the system, highlighting the work they do, their understanding and efficiency. This rings especially true for agency staff. Agency staff using accessible care management systems find it easier to fit into the unique structure of your service. 

A care management system offers you the ability to record your care accurately. This data is central to your social care compliance. When managers can draw specific and detailed reports they can take more confidence in their conversations. Not just in demonstrating the service they provided, but, crucially, pointing to the outcomes of your care. 

Ownership breeds confidence, just ask anyone with a BMW. When your care managers and leaders feel like the owners and drivers of the care they provide, they will be in the best position to talk about its quality. Pride might be a sin, but it is deadly effective in inspection interviews. When the work you do helps people live their best lives it is natural to take pride in it. Anything else would be unfaithful to the spirit of care. Managers that can harness this pride, and evidence improved outcomes over time, are well positioned for any inspection. 

For central operations and quality assurance team members you want to be able to show the big picture. This means being able to communicate your approach to oversight and how feedback cycles through your service in a responsive manner. Showing your processes backs up the evidence provided on a more specific level by your carers and managers. Reinforcing the quality of your care.  

Social care compliance is linked to your policies and procedures. You need to be able to present them and demonstrate how you implement them. Again, this comes back to confidence and ownership as outlined earlier. Care management software can also support you. Simplifying the recording, reviewing and reporting of your policies and procedures. 

Additionally, quality care management systems include an ‘audit trail’. This records every change that occurs on your system. Each assessment, each care plan update and all the clicks in between. This gives you a clearly evidencable history of activity on your platform. Painting a picture in real time of the journey of your care, the reality of your policies and the effort of your team.  

Relationships are hard, ask anyone whose partner owns a BMW. Communication is the bridge that we build between each other. And whether you are building a bridge between people utilising your service or the people inspecting it, its strength will be defined by the clarity of your communication. This is true to the point that being able to demonstrate the effectiveness of your approach to internal communication in your service is an indicator of quality care.  

But, and it’s a big but, effective communication is not telling people what they want to hear. It is telling them what they need to know. This includes pushing back when you feel misrepresented. You are the expert in your service. Set a standard of open, clear communication with your inspector and you will have the confidence to speak the truth to power. Clarity is rarely achieved easily. With confidence in your service, and the evidence to prove your points, clarity is the result that will earn you the rating you deserve.