The Scottish Government recently published The Future of Residential Care
This report and its accompanying recommendations, produced by the Scottish Government-led ‘Task Force for the Future of Residential Care for Older People in Scotland’, has now been published by the Scottish Government and can be accessed via the links above.
Interesting and relevant highlights from the recommendations section include:
On staffing:
“All of this is affected by perhaps the greatest single challenge for the delivery of a high- performing workforce into the future: terms and conditions. Care remains a low wage economy. There is no parity for the independent and third sectors in terms of pay or other terms and conditions with NHS or local authority equivalent jobs. Career progression in the sector remains challenging, making entry into the workforce a potentially unattractive career prospect. This also impacts on staff support and morale, as supervision of staff (if available), is often reported as being used as a management and performance tool rather than as a personal and professional development tool. All of this compounds the challenges we face in securing a sustainable and skilled workforce in this sector in coming years. New means of rewarding provision and the workforce need to be explored to address this, notwithstanding the current financial pressures. Levelling up the terms and conditions in the care sector to the Living Wage should be our goal. ”
On regulation and innovation:
“The Task Force is clear that flexibility should be given to providers to innovate and provide different service design or delivery options – for example, more community outreach services. The Care Inspectorate’s view is that variations (from the standard service template) that are reasonable, specific and justified, are possible. ”
On Care Homes and Community:
“One way to create greater community ownership would be to establish community engagement arrangements for care homes, similar to those employed by some schools. This would allow greater community involvement in the day-to-day activities and management of the facility – and it would connect the care home to wider community initiatives. It would also encourage greater participation in volunteering in care homes. ”
On Recruitment:
“Joint Strategic Commissioning Plans should include, as part of their needs analysis, a scoping of the workforce issues in the care home sector in their partnership. This scoping should include an analysis of skills and training requirements and gaps, issues of recruitment challenge and gaps and opportunities for role and career development. ”
On co-production:
“Future care provision should be planned, located and designed to maximise community and family involvement, and service integration. This may include the potential for co- production and co-location. ”