Caring means being able to respond to people’s needs promptly and in a way that minimises distress and provides the comfort and support they need.
To be able to respond to people’s immediate needs, you will need to ensure that the service has enough staff to be flexible and give over more time to support people when needed. This is true of both residential and community-based services.
It also will require you to ensure staff have the right values and training to recognise where additional levels of care are needed by individuals. Effective communication will be essential, alongside other softer skills.
From monitoring changes in people to listening intently to their needs, your care team should be able to respond to additional needs and the service is suitably resourced to enable this to happen.
The person you support may need more time to express their views and wishes, additional emotional support, or extra help to alleviate discomfort such as pain relief. Whatever the need, the CQC will want to know how these elements of their care have been managed.
The CQC inspectors will ask people, their family, friends and potentially advocates about how promptly members of the care team respond and whether this support meets their needs. Managers and staff will be asked to share their own experiences and positive examples of your flexibility.
The CQC may be interested in associated documented evidence, including Care Plans, training records, staff rotas etc.
To learn more about how you can meet this area of CQC inspection, take a look at GO Online.
Watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/787631322