The care exchange from Skills for Care

Episode 12 | We are a kind, caring sector!  In the final episode of Series 5 of the Care Exchange, Pia Rathje-Burton and Natalie Scarimbolo from Skills for Care reflect on the key themes explored throughout the series, including culture, kindness, staff retention, career development, and quality of care.    Resources  RM webinar: A caring culture    A positive culture toolkit for adult social care...

We enter the world of HR. Sonia Rai, HR expert, talks to us about the importance of good HR advice, setting precedents, having difficult conversations, and creating evidence trails. Sonia also gives us an update on the Employment Rights Act and what you need to plan for.     Resources  Induction toolkit    Values-based recruitment   

Caroline Cosh, registered manager of Outstanding-rated Clifton Homecare, talks to us about the importance of looking after her workforce. This includes person-centred staff supervision through direct observations, one-on-one meetings, and mentoring, with a focus on understanding and compliance. Caroline also talks to us about the benefits of having a diverse staff team, emphasising the benefits of...

Dawn Stott, a consultant specialising in kindness, resilience, and ethical leadership, discusses the importance of fostering a kind and supportive work culture.   She emphasises the importance of integrating kindness into organisational culture, particularly in recruitment, and using culture questionnaires to tailor training. She is a huge advocate for self-care, mentorship, and psychological safe...

Hear from Adam Purnell, a Quality Assurance Manager at Bayswood Care Home who explains the importance of his role in ensuring compliance with regulations and improving care quality. He shares why knowing the regulations are so vital and how making actions SMART drives real change. He stresses the need for managers to focus on controllable factors, the importance of involving people in the auditing...

We talk to Louie Werth, Director of Care Research and CQC feedback expert! Louie discusses the importance of feedback in CQC assessments, how gathering and actioning feedback will improve your service and the quality of care you provide and the one question that the CQC will ask everyone.  He shares how important it is that staff feel confident and prepared to give feedback to the CQC and suggests...

Listen to Kam Gill, Registered Manager at Walfinch Oxfordshire who talks about her role and involvement in the Oxford registered manager network. She emphasises the importance of connecting with other managers, your team and your local community. Kam highlights initiatives she organises like community events, exercise classes, and cultural activities to help foster local engagement and she shares...

Listen to Nicola Airey and Justine Jones who talk to us about how useful they have found utilising the care workforce pathways within their organisation.  Nicola, Head of Talent Development at the National Care Group, explains how the pathway helps identify staff's career aspirations and development needs, leading to increased professional qualifications and career progression. Justine, Registered...

Cheryll Champion, an ex CQC inspector working as a quality and compliance lead joins the podcast to talk about what she learnt as when her organisation was inspected under the single assessment framework, how she ensured that it was clear how the evidence linked to quality statement and the importance of knowing the regulations. Cheryll also speaks passionately about creating a culture that enable...

Listen to Lindsay talk about her work for QCS and what she commonly sees in both 'good' and 'outstanding' services.  She gives some great tips on effectively auditing and making improvements. We also talk about her passion project around falls based on best practice research around falls risk assessment and how a 'falls huddle' can make a difference.   Resources Guide to improvement; Learning from...

We talk to Leah Smith, Chief People Officer at Berkley Care Group about their focus and strategy on neurodiversity. It’s estimated that 15-20% of the social care workforce identify as neurodivergent in some way.  She talks about some of the cost-effective changes they have made to their recruitment processes including providing interview questions in advance and offering video or audio application...

Series 5 of the care exchange has launched with a special live episode chatting to James Bullion from the Care Quality Commission (CQC). James covers many different topics including talking about his role as Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care at the CQC. Listen as he speaks about the CQC’s plans for making improvements, how it is important to learn from things going wrong and...

Our final episode of the current series of the care exchange, we are joined by Zoe Fry OBE from the Outstanding Society.    Hear Pia, Wendy and Zoe reflect on previous episodes and discuss lots of interesting topics including:  Different ways to train leaders and staff   Proactively preparing staff for CQC assessments    Having conversations about LGBTQ+

Listen to Claire Callaghan talking about why her staff never want to leave and how she has not spent a penny on recruitment in years.  She credits this to a great recruitment process, a person-centred induction and a ‘listen to’ culture.  Claire also talks about their organisational commitment to diversity in the workplace and the support they provide around LGBTQ+, neurodiversity and menopause  R...

Listen to Colin Scott talking about how he has used the Skills for Care LGBTQ+ learning framework in his care home for older people to create a culture where people can be themselves.   Colin is the registered home manager of The Maples Residential Care Home, and he talks about   how he has made changes throughout the service with surprising results and how he has worked to engage people, their fa...

Hear from Isabel De La Haye, a recently qualified solicitor who talks a lot about the new CQC assessment and shares her tips on how you can prepare for any forthcoming assessment by understanding your current position. She talks about the importance of checking the factual accuracy of your CQC report and understanding how your rating is created.   Resources: Data Security and Protection eLearning...

Maddie Watts, the owner and Registered manager of the outstanding rated Inchwater home care chats to us about the preparation she is doing for assessment under the new single assessment framework and how to evidence good practice for CQC. Maddie talks about evidencing feedback of partnership working with other professionals and the benefits of reflective conversations to the continuous improvement...

We chat to Jodie Allen-Cawley, Head of Quality and Health and Safety at Lifeways.    Jodie talks about why co-production is the key to providing quality care and how it works in partnership with the people you provide care to. She explores how the ‘I statements’ and ‘we statements’ align with the new CQC Single Assessment Framework and, as a quality lead, how to evidence personalisation and co-pro...

Stephen Forster joins the Care Exchange to talk about his success in recruiting 1000s of care workers. He shares his top tips on attracting workers, including how to create an amazing recruitment journey for each candidate and how to reduce no shows. We also chat about sending top tips to candidates before interview, creating attractive job adverts and value-based retention.  Resources DBS checks...

For most of us, the answer to the question ‘what is most important to you?’ would be our personal relationships. Join us for a fascinating discussion with Dr Claire Bates about how we can, and should be, supporting people to continue the relationships that are important to them.    Dr Claire Bates, who set up and runs the ‘Supported Loving’ network, talks candidly in this episode about how we shou...

We chat to Samantha Crawley, CEO of Bracebridge Care and Director of The Outstanding Society.   She talks about why registered managers strive for Outstanding, and the impact of the culture of a service on CQC ratings. Samantha also shares some great ideas about how to tackle difficult team dynamics and she how uses an assessment centre approach to help with recruitment. You can also find out why...

Series 4 Episode 1: What is your favourite chocolate bar? Series 4 kicks off with a fascinating conversation alongside Neil Eastwood, CEO and founder of Care Friends recorded with a live audience!   Listen to Neil talk about the secrets to recruitment including having a narrow and wide focus on attracting job applicants and how to connect with people in your local community. Neil also shares lots...

In the final episode of this series, we are joined by Zoe Fry OBE from the Outstanding Society who is also the host of the ‘Care Insights’ podcast. Together we look back at guests that have featured on both podcasts, and we reflect on the importance of positive leadership, leading by example and having a good workplace culture. We also discuss the benefits of looking outwards and learning from oth...

We talk to Aeon Anderson from the African Caribbean Community Initiative about lots of things including: what it’s like to manage a service that supports people from an African Caribbean background with mental health issues how to recruit the right staff, manage a diverse team and ensure that the staff feel supported planning and delivering learning and development that meets the needs of the indi...

Good Oaks Home Care is the first UK carbon neutral home care company. Ben Ashton, the co-founder and director joins us to talk about what you have to do to become carbon neutral, why it is so important and how it fits so well with values-based recruitment and retention. Ben also talks about his positive experiences and shares his learnings of recruiting internationally. Resources RM membership RM...