Anne Graham, a qualified social worker, and David King, a qualified nurse, are owners of Resolve Care. They have two care homes in County Durham for people with autism and learning disabilities who have restricted rights. Praised by the CQC for how they are using innovative technology to support their model of care, Anne and David discuss their double ‘Outstanding’ CQC status.
What does outstanding look like in the care home sector? There are many examples of excellence in practice, and generally these care homes share common themes. The strategy followed at Resolve Care has ensured strong leadership, a committed workforce, and the use of innovative technology; to support the development of our ground-breaking model of care.
Resolve Care’s two homes are for adults with autism or learning disabilities, most have their rights restricted under the Mental Health Act and have had limited life-opportunities. The service we provide is absolutely essential to this unique group because there really is a lack of provision for people.
Rated as Outstanding by the CQC twice, the impact of this status is immense; it’s encouraging for the people we support and care for and their families, staff and managers, and of course us!
Strong leadership
As strong leaders we have made it our responsibility to create a positive environment, and established a very open and transparent culture.
Involving service users in the entire process, listening to their views and opinions, and responding quickly is very important. Relationships are at the heart of the Resolve way of working, and growing trust and an open relationship with each service user, is essential.
Valued workforce
Recruitment and retention of good quality staff has never been more critical to achieving high quality care, and this was addressed in the CQC’s ‘Driving Improvement’ report earlier this year.
Our workforce is highly valued, well-trained, and supported to deliver safe, effective care.
A stable and dedicated core staff team has allowed us to develop strong relationships with service users. Our philosophy is recruit people who have a strong fit with our service users, and this has so far stood us in good stead; resulting in low staff turnover.
Innovative technology
As part of our drive to deliver the best service, innovative digital technology is an essential element, allowing us to find better ways of working.
The most recent example of this is how we have changed our case management processes from paper-based to an online case management system, ECLIPSE from OLM. It is a better way of working for us and has had a real impact on the service at the two care homes.
The implementation of the new system has made the whole process more simple, efficient, and cost-effective. The staff and managers use the solution for the day-to-day management of service user records, and we’ve also been able to extend this to our service users themselves.
Service users have varying levels of verbal communication skills and ability to understand written documents. This new system allows services users to sign and have input into their own care plans.
A bright future
Our long-term stability, and commitment to innovate our service, help us sustain the quality of care for which we have been recognised, and we hope our success goes towards demonstrating some of the positive work that is being achieved at a local level in the adult social care sector.
Key Points:
- Innovative technology
- Strong leadership
- Committed workforce
- Ongoing commitment to training at all levels
- Involvement of service users and staff in the service
