From the Editor: Adult social care: insights into the year ahead
The Care Home Environment Magazine
The Care Home Environment is the leading business information resource focusing on the build and equipping of care homes
The year ahead promises to be a challenging and turbulent one for social care, not least because of the prospect of a forthcoming general election (and, potentially, an incoming Labour government).
To help us navigate the months ahead, RWK Goodman ’s Health and Social Care team have taken a look at some key areas which may impact the adult social care sector in 2024.
Data protection, cyber security, and CQC
CQC’s new single assessment framework will be rolled out to all services in 2024. This methodology retains some of the old (the five key questions, the current regulations, and risk-based monitoring) and combines it with the new (six evidence categories, scored numerically to provide a rating).
The use of technology in care services will continue to increase, meaning robust data protection and cyber security measures will be more important than ever. Providers are likely to see more scrutiny from CQC in these areas, which will be assessed under the single assessment framework. Sadly, data breaches are a case of when, not if.
Workforce
In 2023, the chronic shortage of care workers was partially alleviated by significantly increased levels of international recruitment. However, the recently announced restriction on care workers bringing their dependants to the UK could make coming here less attractive. The use of international recruitment has resulted in reduced vacancies for some operators and others have benefited from the additional capacity created in the system. Some have continued to struggle with recruitment and have faced increased agency spend as there remains a significant shortage of workers in the domestic workforce. This is likely to continue in 2024.
International recruitment is not without its risks and considerable concerns have been reported about modern slavery practices and non-compliance with sponsor licence requirements. In 2024, it will be critical for providers to audit their recruitment practices, re-fresh their compliance training, and ensure that they are operating ethically to avoid significant penalties and reputational damage.
In 2024, providers will need to grapple with the recent and significant changes to the rules on holiday entitlement and pay for workers with irregular hours, and implement a raft of new employment law rights, including increased protection from redundancy for employees on maternity leave, new carers’ leave rights, a requirement to take ‘reasonable steps’ to protect against sexual harassment, increased flexible working rights and a new right to request predictable working hours.
The importance of the bottom line
The challenging economic situation will continue to focus providers on financial health, particularly in relation to negotiating fees, managing funding streams (specifically in nursing care), evaluating sources of funding for new admissions, ensuring client contracts are robust, maximising top ups, and proactively dealing with unpaid debts.
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Hazel Phillips , partner and head of health and social care at RWK Goodman , said: “We are optimistic for adult social care in 2024. It remains a market where significant investment is being made by UK and overseas investors, which will continue to drive improvement and innovation. Whilst the challenges around funding and staffing remain, perhaps this is the year when a change in government could finally trigger reform of the system. We hope so!”
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