Policy Hub
On 9 November 2009, the National Care Forum, in partnership with Counsel and Care, published a report which finds that investing in staff and leadership is the key to delivering quality care for older and disabled people.
Care services with high star ratings spend up to 20% more on staff and their training, development and management, as well as putting service users at the centre of everything they do. Not-for-profit providers consistently get better quality ratings.
The report notes that some local authorities pay residential care providers as little as £315 a week for a place in a care home which, it contends, is insufficient to deliver quality care as providers face rising costs. Some providers are able to spend three times as much on meals for residents as others.
The report, based on a survey of not-for-profit providers of care, reveals that the top determinants of better care are: the views of people who use services and their families; putting relationship-centred care into practice; effective leadership and management; learning and development; valuing and rewarding staff; service innovation and new ways of working; and income and costs.