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Home > Corporate > Press Release > 2009 Press Releases > Latest Research from The Consortium Care Reveals Care Homes Back AQAA Reform

February, 2009

Latest research from The Consortium Care reveals confidence in self assessment scheme

Sweeping reforms to the way care providers are inspected will help raise standards among poorly-performing homes and improve residents’ quality of life, according to exclusive new research published today by Caring Business.

In particular there is solid backing in the care community for the introduction of self assessments through the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI’s) Annual Quality Assurance Assessments (AQAA) with more than three quarters of those who took part in our survey hailing this as a positive development.

A huge majority of respondents also said the changes would produce more focused inspection processes and help raise standards in poorly-performing homes.

These are among the findings in the latest survey carried out for Caring Business by The Consortium Care, a leading national provider of care supplies and services.

The survey also asked care providers about when they were last inspected, whether they had completed one of the self assessment forms, their views on plans for care homes to be inspected every three years instead of annually and, finally, which areas of their business they thought would be most affected.

Brian Potter, Marketing And Sales Director at The Consortium Care, said: “These findings clearly show that the majority of care home providers are backing the CSCI reforms and, most importantly, believe they will have a positive impact on residents’ quality of life.

“No doubt there are those who see the introduction of the star rating system, National Minimum Standards (NMS) and AQAA as another tier of bureaucracy and red tape, but there is also a realisation that these measures will help care homes, particularly poorly-performing ones, to improve.

“This view is summed up by one respondent to the survey who concluded: ‘There are still many care settings not offering a good quality of care and standards. Inspections should be carried out regularly to protect all vulnerable people.’

“However, although the vast majority of respondents seem to be backing the reforms, the support is not unequivocal, as reported by the care home provider who commented: ‘Care for the elderly is a must, but with the amount of paper and red tape the relaxed homely atmosphere is hard to maintain because of the amount of time taken away from the clients.’”

A massive 80 per cent of survey respondents said the CSCI reforms were a positive development which would bolster the systems already in place, up 5 per cent from last year’s survey results.

“I think the new changes will benefit everyone as long as the AQAA forms are completed honestly and correctly,” said one respondent, who added: “The new approach gives home owners/managers the feeling that CSCI is working with them towards a better future.”

The remaining 20 per cent, however, said the AQAA was another unwelcome piece of bureaucracy which will further add to the burden of red tape in care homes.

According to one respondent: “AQAA is yet another unnecessary and over-complex piece of bureaucracy…it’s simple – inspect known bad homes more regularly and good homes less regularly.”

Brian Potter said: “The most important people in all this are the care home residents, and from the survey I think the CSCI can be reassured that that home owners and managers agree these changes will benefit their clients and enable poorly-performing homes to improve the services they provide.

“Nevertheless we cannot ignore the fact that some 20 per cent see AQAA as a ‘burden’ and make the point that the reforms are being introduced with too broad a sweep and should be more focused on helping the poor-performing homes and leave the better-performing homes to get on with the job of caring.”

Just over three quarters (76 per cent) said changes to make inspections more focused would improve residents’ quality of life, slightly up on the figure of 75 per cent in the last survey.

Though 19 per cent claimed the changes indicated a “loss of confidence in a regulatory system which did not need reform in the first place”, this is down 6 per cent on last year’s survey, indicating that confidence in the system is growing.

Just 13 per cent said their home had been inspected in the past three to six months, with about a third (33 per cent) saying their last inspection was more than a year ago, and indeed the question of how often care homes should be inspected split the respondents more than any other.

Under the new National Minimum Standards care homes are required to be inspected only every three years instead of the existing annual visit.

Just under half (48 per cent) viewed this as positive, saying having fewer inspections frees up more time and resources for core operations, marginally down on last year’s 49 per cent.

But more than a quarter (30 per cent) said it was imperative for care homes to have more regular feedback on what they were doing right or wrong.

As one respondent commented: “Three years is a long time to go without an inspection and bad practice can occur…I feel units should have an unannounced inspection on a yearly basis, as self assessments can be biased to the person completing them.”

Another said: “Face to face inspection is the best policy on an annual basis. AQAA does not provide positive comments from service users, their next of kin, staff and managers and other professionals.”

Nearly all our respondents (97 per cent) said either they or a colleague had now completed an AQAA form since the scheme was introduced, compared with 46 per cent last time round.

When asked which part of their business would be most affected by the changes to the inspection system 12 per cent said staffing levels would change, 31 per cent chose staff training and 9 per cent said there would have to be physical changes to their buildings (48 per cent said there would be no changes).

“I think what this survey highlights is that care homes are ready and able to take on the task of self assessment,” said Mr Potter. “But there is a significant minority who don’t agree that this is in the best interests of residents, and the challenge for CSCI is to persuade these people that this is the way forward.”