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Delivering evidence-based care and treatment

Evidence-based care and treatment is reliant on an effective assessment of people’s needs and ensuring that their care reflects the latest legislation, standards, and evidence-based research.

The following film provides a summary of this area of inspection. It can help you and your teams learn about what will be inspected and what is important to demonstrate to deliver good or outstanding care.

Introducing Delivering evidence-based care and treatment

Duration 01 min 57 sec

To deliver evidence-based care and treatment for the people you support, you will need to ensure that the service is delivering care that is aligned with the latest legislation and standards.

When assessing people’s needs, what you offer to support them must reflect the latest good practice and evidence-based research. This will require managers and leaders to keep themselves up to date.

These changes can sometimes be introduced at short notice – such as the frequently updated guidance issued during the pandemic, so you must have the capacity to review and revise processes quickly on occasion.

The CQC will look at how your quality assurance monitors compliance with the latest legislation and good practice. They will also expect a good understanding and strict compliance with national standards and their own regulations.

It is important that you ensure the care you deliver reflects the latest guidance from professional bodies such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. As new guidance is introduced, staff will need to be effectively trained to understand and comply with these changes.

Where your service supports people to be well-fed and hydrated, inspectors will look at how what you provide is aligned with the latest good practice and meets people’s needs in these important areas of care.

Effective outcomes will also look at how your service protects people from discrimination. This includes their protected characteristics under the Equality Act.

In addition to the CQC inspection interviews, be prepared to share various documents including:

  • care assessments
  • care plans, reviews, and outcome records
  • complaints and compliments
  • and your Equality and diversity policy.

GO Online has compiled together recommendations, examples, and resources to help this area of CQC inspection.

Watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/788202511

Practical examples

The examples below provide insight into how other Good or Outstanding rated services are succeeding in this area of inspection. Use the filter to choose different types of examples or select based on related prompt.

If you have an example you would like to share, please e-mail employer.engagement@skillsforcare.org.uk.

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10 example(s) found

Accredited by specialist association

The registered manager and case managers kept abreast of current legislation, standards and evidence-based guidance. They were all accredited by The British Association of Brain Injury Case Management (BABICM). They had taken part in research surveys and interviews, had articles published in magazines and had written a chapter in a book about brain injury, which was published. The registered manager said: "We like to get involved, and we like to share our knowledge."

Read more about this service here.

Care provider: J S Parker Limited North East

  • Case study

Date published: February 2020


Best practice guidance

The provider had up-to-date policies and procedures that reflected national best practice guidance and current legislation to guide staff practice.

Recognised assessment tools were used for the care and management of people's needs, such as with skin, falls, nutrition and oral care. The registered manager consistently researched best practice guidance and had a collaborative approach in supporting people to achieve good outcomes. This included working closely with external professionals and participating in social care research programmes.

Read more about this service here.

Care provider: The Byars Nursing Home

  • Case study

Date published: August 2019


Benchmarking the benefits of live in care

The provider had benchmarked outcomes against alternate care provisions to demonstrate the benefits of live-in care. This looked falls management, pressure sores, UTIs, chest infections, antipsychotic medicines and palliative care. The analysis of data as compared to alternate care provisions showed more positive outcomes for people in receipt of live-in care.

For example, when compared with care homes, the data showed that people experienced fewer serious injuries because of falls, were less likely to acquire pressure sores, less likely to be prescribed anti-psychotic medicines, had fewer hospital admissions due to early diagnosis of UTI's and chest infections, and were more likely to die in their preferred place.

The provider was preparing a paper around reducing emergency intervention for UTIs through the introduction of urinalysis testing kits for publication in a scientific journal.

Read more about this service here.

Care provider: The Good Care Group

  • Case study

Date published: April 2019


Using champions to drive forward best practice

Best practice developments were adopted and embedded in everyday practice. The staff team consisted of a variety of different 'champions' whose responsibility was to research innovative techniques and technologies to support the people living at the service.

For example, to achieve people's objectives of becoming more independent, the communications champion researched communication aids to support them in the community. They developed pictorial and electronic communication booklets for people to use when shopping, eating and drinking out and taking part in activities.

Read more about the service here.

Care provider: SENSE - 89 Hastings Avenue

  • Case study

Date published: April 2019


Enhancing quality through frameworks

In order to benchmark ourselves against other services, we use self-assessment tools and benchmarks and quality frameworks.

We pride ourselves on the use of quality frameworks to guide our work and business planning. This ensures we’re at the forefront of quality initiatives in social care for people with learning disabilities.

Frameworks have included:

  • disability confident employer
  • driving up quality in learning disability services
  • Think Local Act Personal
  • health charter
  • Quality Matters
  • dignity in care
  • positive behavioural support (PBS)
  • NICE guidelines.

We try to use creative methods where we can, to help everyone (staff, people we support, families) understand the focus of these frameworks and why they’re important for quality.

Read more about the service here.

Care provider: Castle Supported Living

  • Case study

Date published: April 2018


Using guidance to drive change

Undertaking their own research into ulcer care, the registered manager looked closely at NICE guidance in relation to nutrition, hydration and pressure ulcer care. Through undertaking this analysis, the registered manager led an initiative to increase people’s mobility and keep people moving.

Care provider: Anonymous

  • Case study

Date published: April 2018


Keeping up-to-date with best practice

Our registered manager and other members of the senior team maintain their skills and knowledge to ensure care is delivered in-line with good practice guidance.

They attend training, conferences, provider forums and meetings, as well as being members of organisations that offer regular updates and reading materials. This learning is then cascaded to the team.

Read more about the service here.

Care provider: Egalité Care Ltd

  • Case study

Date published: April 2018


Leading insight into guidance and requirements

The registered manager and nominated individual worked together to ensure they clearly understood the Health and Social Care Act 2008. They incorporated this learning into policies, procedures and best practice guidance. The service was able to instil confidence in their systems, and processes were useful and effective.

Care provider: Anonymous

  • Case study

Date published: April 2018


Incorporating expert guidance

The service incorporated expert guidance from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, The Alzheimer’s Society, the Stroke Association and the Parkinson’s Society into the care they provided. This included including relevant information into people’s care plans for staff to follow.

Care provider: Anonymous

  • Case study

Date published: April 2018


Ensuring training and staff guidance is current

Our clinical training is reviewed annually to ensure it’s current and complies with up-to-date best practice guidance.

NICE guidance, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and other relevant guidelines are sourced and shared by our head of clinical excellence. This information is also available to all employees via our intranet.

We have links with local universities such as the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol. We have student nurses at the care home who work alongside mentors. These dedicated mentors must be up to date with all legislation and pass a test with the university to ensure their standards are up to the required role as a mentor.

Read more about the service here.

Care provider: Brunelcare’s Deerhurst Care Home (with Nursing)

  • Case study

Date published: April 2018



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