Compliance


improve the management of the care home and, consequently, the quality of life of the residents. Such individuals will need more


information and guidance, especially within their first few years on the board. This guidance can sometimes be provided by their fellow directors; however, many boards prefer to use a third party to provide them with ongoing support until they have built up their confidence, which can also bring the added benefit of having another expert to help advise the board.


Using an expert to help bridge the gap To ensure that your care home is well-led, you are going to need constant oversight to ensure that the risks, variables and audits of your home are being effectively managed. It follows that someone will need to have overall responsibility for this; sometimes the chief executive is the nominated individual, but often it is a director, which is generally viewed favourably by the regulator as directors hold a legally responsible position. However, it is often the case that


the most senior level of the structure of your care home is very busy and sometimes it can help to have the ongoing oversight of your care home passed to an expert to monitor things. Such independent experts can act as a bridge between on-the-ground demands of staff and managers and the commercial imperatives of the board, helping to assess whether investments are needed immediately, can be planned or are merely a nice to have, ensuring the


18


welfare of residents and the commercials are balanced and equally optimised. By providing regular checks, they


will also flag when something might go wrong. Ultimately, a care home does not fail overnight; it fails over a period of time and if you have the right eyes and ears on the ground and know how to ask the right questions then you can take remedial actions to help prevent a disaster. This can often be especially useful


for providers who have multiple homes. All too often my team and I have worked with providers who have had one failing home demanding all of their attention, taking the focus off the good homes, resulting in them all becoming disorderly. In such instances, many providers can find it useful to have a team of experts oversee the home that needs improving so that they can manage properly the good homes and ensure they continue to thrive. When you are heavily invested in


your home for a prolonged period of time, doing the same thing over and over, sometimes it can become difficult to understand where change needs to happen, and trends can be missed. This is where a fresh pair of eyes can help you to improve the overall governance of your care home.


Conclusion With a diverse workforce and stakeholders in your care home — although all having the best interest of residents at heart — have different perspectives and priorities. Ensuring that your care home is well-led is going to require ongoing supervision and


communication at all levels of the homes/ organisation. Cultivating change slowly, with a clear methodology behind your decisions is the best way to ensure good governance of your home.


TCHE


Tony Thiru


Tony Thiru is the chief executive of Fulcrum Care, a consultancy firm that helps improve both resident outcomes and the commercials of care homes for owners, managers and investors in England. As well as managing Fulcrum, Tony still plays an active role in providing consultancy for their clients and specialises in compliance, risk mitigation and ‘troubleshooting’, with a track record in transforming failing care homes. Tony and his team at Fulcrum are keen proponents in using technology to help improve the work lives of carers, the experience of residents and to help modernise the care sector altogether.


www.thecarehomeenvironment.com • October 2021


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