Course accreditation

Following a lengthy period of time in writing and developing the materials we now have our Diploma in Social Care Management accredited by the NCFE.

At the Association of Social Care Professionals we are determined to help promote professionalism in the Social Care sector, to this end the Diploma will add to and enhance the skills available from current level 5 diplomas within the Social Care sector.

It is specifically aimed at developing an individuals business skills for example finance, marketing and human resources.

In austere times for Social Care businesses it is every increasingly important to be able to manage a Social Care business in a cost effective manner.

Supporting Registered Managers in difficult times

Regional law firm Rix & Kay, have published results form research undertaken, these findings have been drawn from in depth interviews with care homes across the South East. The report highlights the fact that central government funding continues to reduce, leaving care home owners no option but to inject more capital into their business, not just to keep it ‘ticking over’, but to meet the ever increasing CQC (Care Quality Commission) requirements.

According to the report, only 15% of care homes interviewed believe the Care Sector is an attractive business proposition to new entrants. This startling statistic presents serious concerns over the future viability of care home provision in the UK as the aging population and demand for care continues to increase.

You might ask how this affects our Members? If nothing else it simply adds to the pressure that Registered Managers have to cope with on an ongoing basis, whether in Residential or Domiciliary care settings.

That's why as a not for profit organisation we put all income back into maintaining and developing services for our Membership.

Please visit us at: www.tascp.org

The Professionals

We all know that there needs to be more funding for Social Care and that includes better pay for staff. One way that staff working in Social Care can increase their chances of better pay is to buy in to the concept of Social Care as a recognised Profession, as one could argue that recognised Professions are paid more than non-professions.

However this requires all to work towards ensuring that it is seen as a Profession, the Association of Social Care Professionals is striving very hard to achieve this recognition for it's Members, but individuals need to do their part as well.  This means investing time in developing their professional skills and knowledge through professional education courses and training.

The Association of Social Care Professionals run a range of such courses; The Diploma in Social Care Management (NCFE accredited diploma 5) Employment Law in Social Care for Registered Managers, Certificate in Training Practice in Social Care and Team Leader Certificate.

We also provide support with Continuous Professional Development CPD.

Working together we can achieve richly deserved Professional recognition for all working in Social Care.

Another Politicians answer to Social Care fuding

Mr Corbyn - yet another Politician who has no clue as to what is needed within the Social Care sector, it is not whether homes for example are privately owned or in  local authority ownership, what is wrong with these Politicians, oh yes of course they don't 'live in the real world'.

For all our well educated and very clever Politicians here is a simple answer. Provide adequate funding for Social Care, and don't tell us there are x thousands or millions of pounds being invested or promised. Secondly invest in the hardworking staff (our Members) who work within the sector, recognise them as a profession and value them, including with pay that reflects a profession.

The solution is simple, but of course Politicians of all backgrounds simply use issues like this to try and buy votes at any given forthcoming election.

Having said this, there is of course also a need to remove the CQC and replace it with a body that is more about improving (in a supportive manner) quality than simply adding more pressure onto Registered Managers.

Lets face it there is something fundamentally flawed with the CQC when they take a year to provide an inspection report on a residential care home, a year, incompetence of massive proportions.

CQC = Quality?

A Residential Care Home in Hampshire recently received its inspection report a yare after CQC had inspected the home, really? yes really!

You might aske yourself the question (as I have); "How can this possibly aid the improvement of quality and raise standards?" Just imagine if as a Registered Manager you had a member of staff that was underperforming and you took a year to tell them that this was the case, this is not how you support performance improvement.

Take another scenario, CQC ask you to provide information to help them judge how well you are performing, does anyone really think that they would just let it go, they would be on your back and would be thinking that you are pretty unprofessional.

Yet the more I experience CQC, both through my own personal experience and through Members\contacts in Social Care the more I begin to see just how unprofessional CQC can be and yet they are supposed to be the guardians of quality. When will someone take CQC to task over this kind of incident?

I believe that there needs to be a review of the way Social Care is monitored and quality is continually improved, including whether CQC are a positive or negative influence.

Shared Society

First we had the big society by Mr Cameron and now we have shared society by Mrs May, if they were sat next to each other in an exam they would be done for cheating (copying each others work).

Why? why another soundbite when for example the Social Care system is constantly struggling financially? The Social Care system has some of the most dedicated professionals working under extreme pressure for often low pay, owners are struggling with lack of funding and an inconsistent CQC often behaving in an intimidating manner and most importantly a vulnerable Client group being let down by not just a Conservative Government currently, Labour in the past and even the Lib Dems when in 'power' recently.

So a question to our Politicians - Are you going to continue with soundbites and claims that x million pounds are being put into the system or are you going to have the decency to do something meaningful to improve the current situation?

Time for change

With the New Year almost upon us I have been reflecting on quality of service delivery within the Social Care sector. As with most occupational areas there will always be a spectrum from excellent to poor. The question is how do we raise standards, improve professionalism and thus raise the quality of service delivery within Social Care?

In my view it is not through Local Authority inspectors or the 'wonderful CQC' real improvements have to come from the grassroots of the sector, what does this mean. I believe it means training, developing and nurturing a more professional approach those who work at the sharp end, Carers, Cleaners, Shift\Team Leaders and Registered Managers.

Yes we need to see much more funding going into Social Care, but we also need to take the above approach and finally begin to value and recognise Social Care work as a Profession, then we will see sustainable improvement in Social Care where it is needed.