The idea of the Outstanding Society came to Camilla Trimble whilst out walking her dogs one day as her care home had recently been rated as Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission. She wanted to create a forum where other Outstanding care homes could meet to discuss and share best practice.
She floated the idea past Care England’s Chief Executive, Professor Martin Green, who thoroughly endorsed the idea and offered to support it. Together with four other Outstanding providers the inaugural meeting of the Outstanding Society was held in October 2015 which brought together care providers from all over England. Care Talk caught up with Camilla and asked her how her thoughts on How to be Outstanding.
I agree completely with Martin Green of Care England that it is very encouraging to see an increasing number of services that are receiving an Outstanding rating from the Care Quality Commission. At the time of writing I can confirm that there are currently around 300 providers that have this rating.
So How to be Outstanding? If you were to ask ten different Outstanding rated providers this question, you would probably receive ten different responses. The underlying theme however, would be one of placing huge emphasis on the management team and the ethos that it wraps around the residents, relatives, friends and staff of the home. If an organisation is not well led by a caring, compassionate, dedicated team constantly trying to improve on their service, then it is unlikely to retain its Outstanding rating.
In many conversations that I have had over the last year or so with colleagues, either home owners or managers, what comes over most strongly is their absolute dedication and their enthusiasm and passion to push the boundaries.
It is accepted by all working in this field that the needs of the client based group have changed enormously in the last fifteen years. With the improvements in treatments of the elderly, combined with a much improved drug regime, many elderly people are now able to enjoy a considerably longer life. This does, however, mean that whereas twenty years ago an elderly client might be suffering from one condition, in today’s world that same individual will now be regularly attending five or six Out Patients appointments for various clinics.
It is also very encouraging to see that new technology is quickly taking on board these challenges and providing us with better equipment for us to carry out our jobs.
More recently, on 19th January, The Outstanding Society held its third meeting at the London based office of Skills for Care. The key speakers were Andrea Sutcliffe, Chief Inspector of the Care Quality Commission and Sharon Allen, Chief Executive of Skills for Care. They both spoke very positively about the increase in numbers of providers that have gained an Outstanding rating. A comparison was made to Ofsted in the early days of their new system of rating and how initially, although the numbers were low, they did increase quite rapidly.
At The Outstanding Society we recognise the responsibility that we as Outstanding providers hold. Our goal – to identify ways of best disseminating Outstanding best practice to our colleagues in the industry.
For more information on how to join the Outstanding Society, please email info@careengland.org.uk
