CQC chief inspector thanks social care staff who go 'above and beyond'

The adult social care CQC chief has praised care managers and staff who go "above and beyond" despite no "long-term sustainable funding solutions" and over 120,000 vacancies to fill within the social care sector.

As a qualified social worker, Kate Terroni, chief inspector of adult social care for the Care Quality Commission has spent the last two years as director of adult services in Oxfordshire before taking up her current post as chief inspector in May.

‘People receive the best care when organisations work together’

Speaking at the Care England conference in London earlier this month, Ms Terroni commended social care managers. She said: “I think it is testament to the new leaders and to our social care workforce who I believe every day do more than they have to, to get issues sorted. Please relay my thanks to your staff.

“I think that is pretty remarkable that 84 per cent of adult social care services are good or outstanding and we have no long-term sustainable funding solution in adult social care.

"We also have 122,000 vacancies within the social care sector [and] have massive challenges about recruitment, so the fact that in that context, we are still seeing quality inching upwards.“

The adult social care chief inspector also told delegates that there are better outcomes when staff feel empowered. She said: “I think there is a responsibility for managers to ask support staff to ask for ideas and what can we be doing better. If they feel empowered to innovate, they feel empowered to speak up when there are concerns about culture.

“We know that people get good outcomes when there is a constant focus on people, but best providers are the providers who are constantly looking for outstanding and they are constantly focussed on best practices."

As chief inspector, Ms Terroni told delegates the importance of regulation. She said: “What matters the most for me in my current job is how we regulate with the quality of care and we are ensuring that we see and hear and listen to the voice of people in all we do."

Age UK published a report in June suggesting an estimated nine million unpaid carers are looking after their loved ones in the UK.

Ms Terroni used this to reiterate the importance of social care and said: “When people access your services, they generally get a good quality service. But people are taking too long to get to you. 1.5 million [people] don’t have their care and support needs met and one in six adults are being a carer for another adult.”

To help bridge this gap, Ms Terroni is continuing to implement recommendations made in the CQC Beyond Barriers report published 2018 where CQC carried out reviews of health and social care systems across the country to find out how services are working together to care for people aged 65 and older.

Ms Terroni said: “Beyond Barriers states, we don’t currently have the incentives to say we need to work as a system.

“What it told us is people get better outcomes when there is a clear vision in a place where we all know we are headed in the right direction where there is clear governance and there is ownership outside of people’s organisational boundaries.”

’We still have challenges over who should be picking up funding’

Ms Terroni spoke about the need for leaders to be innovative and collaborative especially when there is continued uncertainty about long-term government funding. She said: “People receive the best care when organisations work together.

“Funding is a massive challenge. We have challenges about health and social care how people access it. We still have challenges over continued health care and who should be picking up funding.

“If you are a registered manager of a nursing home and one of your residents goes into a key hospital, what is your relationship with that key hospital? What is your relationship with the local dental practice to ensure that your residents are regularly having their oral needs met? How are you working with your local community so that they are able to get out and about in your local area?”

Ms Terroni also spoke about her vision for the future of social care leadership moving forward. She said: “I think we are going to be moving increasingly from I am a good leader from an individual organisation to people getting good quality outcomes when organisations come together and support their job that way so people don’t experience health and care in isolation.”