There was a lot of anticipation for the spring budget. This year’s budget statement only mentioned social care a handful of times. Every time social care was discussed, it was in conjunction with health care in reference to proposed spending and investment. In many regards the joined-up thinking being applied to health and social care is appropriate and very logical. But would it not be lovely if the praise and focus hovered over the social care providers a little longer and shone a little brighter?
With the spring budget still ringing in our ears and (for many) a new tax year fast approaching, now is an opportune time to reflect on where you sit within that chain of care and what you can do to improve outcomes.
What can be improved within your organisation to create a better care environment and an effective business model at the same time? There is still lots of promised funding to be made available in phases over the coming years. Most of the funding is geared at driving change. To reflect and have a better understating of what you want to change internally as well as what you can change, in order to improve, is now more important than ever.
At Redcrier we created time for reflection and wanted to use this quarterly newsletter to share the results with you.
Recent Activity We Are Proud Of
Over the last quarter we have helped over 100 care providers by giving them free Wellbeing training, constituting of:
This campaign helped a lot of care professionals to get a better understanding of their wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around them. This will no doubt have a positive ripple into the wider care community.
We have created many collaborations with other likeminded suppliers. One such collaboration has allowed us to signpost funding currently available to help care providers to adopt a digital care planning system. The interest we have had in this project would imply that a lot of care providers were previously unaware that there was funding available and would not necessarily have known exactly how to access it. Moreover, their care businesses now have the opportunity to be reimagined through the use of market leading digital care planning from KareInn.
This is one of many powerful collaborations we have formed recently, each one we have initiated with the same question…. What will be the benefit to our clients and the wider care sector?
Two of the new courses that we have launched are Adverse Cold Weather and Visual Display Screen equipment, once again expanding our course range, giving our clients more tools to cater for person centered care and allowing the learners who use us to expand their skill sets and open up the potential of a career in care.
We wanted to share some positivity with those who are positive about Redcrier, so we have launched a new referral system that rewards the person making the referral and the person being referred.
What We Are Working Towards
Skills for Care Endorsement. We are proud to carry this badge. The application is no walk in the park, and rightly so! The application makes us review our internal process and our output. The review also reminds us to assess the outcomes for the learner and our clients. The application makes us review whether we are indeed helping our clients and taking them on the journey with us. Obviously, we could offer a very biased answer to those questions, but we would love to hear what you think.
Launch of Supporting people with Downs Syndrome. Supporting a wider range of care providers, with a greater range of courses that help cater for person centered care.
We have also launched Customer Service – care homes operating in the current climate need to offer the highest standards of care to stand out in the competition and maximize inbound enquiries – making the most of the initial assessment process and creating a rounded, positive care environment.
A hardcore element of Redcrier has committed to walking 26 miles in one day to help raise funds and awareness for The Alzheimer’s Society in September. Ok, that is a little way off, but we have signed up now, so wanted to let you know that the charity collection is open, and all donations would be very much appreciated! You never know, a donation, regardless of the size, might just stop us thinking about what a tough challenge walking 26 miles in one day is actually going to be!
Different Perspective
We are delighted to welcome input from associates at Albert Goodman chartered accountants, who this month offer us insight into flexible working.
Flexible Working – A solution for the Care recruitment Crisis?
The Government has recently published proposals to update the law surrounding flexible working. A summary of the proposals is as follows:
- Making the right to request flexible working from day one a right (rather than the employee having to wait 26 weeks).
- A new legal duty for employers to consult with employees about alternatives to their flexible working request rather than just the specific request.
- Employees would no longer be required to set out how their flexible working request would impact the business.
- Two flexible working requests could be made in any 12-month period (it is currently one request).
- Employers would have to respond to flexible working requests within two months instead of the current three months.
There are no plans to change the eight business reasons that you can currently rely on to lawfully refuse a request for flexible working.
Although there is no set schedule for implementation of a Private Members’ bill, which the Government has said it is supporting, it is likely to become law in early 2024.
Would flexible working (opposed to fixed rotas) within your organisation have a negative impact on care delivery? The flexible approach may help to attract and retain staff. A study published by employment charity Working Families indicated that 55% of working parents would consider leaving their job if they found another which was more flexible on working hours and, given the vacancy rate, it is therefore something you may want to consider for the future.
Save The Date
Final Thoughts
We are supporting service users through empowering learners, who are supported by the care managers whom we equip with our training. How do we do that? By creating strong, interactive training content. By making transactions with us easy. Through creating a stable business to allow us to support clients moving forwards and the only way we can do that is by constantly reviewing what we are doing and how it is supporting those within our network. If you are currently reviewing your training and want to talk to us to discover ways you can make improvements to your organisation, then call us today.
