Excellence as Standard - Care Matters | Somerset County Gazette

CARE Focus is committed to promoting excellence in care across the South-West.

We work with care providers to develop and share best practice and to help them keep up with, influence and meet the standards that apply to this vital service industry.

We want to see good providers thrive and help bad providers improve. An important part of that is to make care users more informed.

We want you to have high expectations of the people who come into your home and/or care for your loved ones…..and if those expectations are not met we want to help you 'shop around'.

Over the coming months we will.

•help you understand what good care looks like.

•explain the CQC quality rating system, and.

•give you guidance on the questions to ask when choosing a care provider.

But do let us know if there are particular questions you want us to answer or topics you want us to cover - the cornerstone of high quality care is listening!

Who are Care Focus?

Care Focus is a Community Interest Company (CIC) set up and regulated so that all our activities and assets provide community benefit.

We have recently relocated from a delightful rural setting in Comeytrowe, where we could watch horses graze away the day to (as I tell everyone) the Morrisons car park.

No - we aren’t actually in the car park but, from the window closest to my desk, I can look over it.

Why? I hear you cry. Well, actually, it’s one of the best decisions we’ve made.

•We want to be accessible to the people who may need advice or support with understanding how the care system works.

•We want to meet with individuals, communities, groups, charities and providers of services to ensure we understand and share what high quality care means to you.

Being in the heart of town is really helping us do that and we use the insight we gain to inform our services and help care providers understand and respond to your experiences and expectations.

Somerset County Gazette:

Unit 7 Smalls Yard, Dellers Wharf, Taunton TA1 1NU Tel: 01823-274627.

Website: www.carefocussw.co.uk Email: enquiries@carefocussw.co.uk

CQC - So why should the Care Quality Commission (CQC) matter to you?

Well, they have responsibility for ensuring that hospitals, care homes, dental and general practices and other care services in England provide people with safe, effective and high-quality care.

New regulations from April 1, 2015, state that health and care services must publish and display their most recent CQC inspection rating, ‘to improve transparency and give the public a clear statement about the quality and safety of care provided.’ (CQC website).

On the CQC website Dave Behan, Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission, said: “I am determined for CQC to be on the side of people, and their families, who are receiving health and adult social care services so they can get access to safe, high quality and compassionate services that they have absolutely every right to expect.”

The ratings tell you whether a service is Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate.

Understanding the ratings can really help when it comes to choosing a care provider. Decisions are often made in an atmosphere of urgency.

45% of admissions to residential homes are from a hospital stay. For nursing home admissions that figures is 57%.

If you understand the ratings it can help you produce a short-list of providers to interview/visit before committing to a move.

You may well be deciding where you or your loved one will spend the rest of your/their life.

From, next month, we will start a monthly spotlight on those care providers across the county who are rated Outstanding and Good and will provide you with some top tips on choosing care and support providers.

Meet the team at Care Focus (South West) CIC.

Somerset County Gazette: