Why environmental sustainability is important for care providers

James Rycroft, Executive Director at The Outstanding Society and Managing Director of Vida Healthcare, an ‘Outstanding’ rated care provider shares the importance of environmental sustainability in providing ‘Good’ and ‘Outstanding’ care.

In recent years our responsibilities towards the environment as individuals, businesses, and operators have become increasingly more visible, apparent, and important.

Finally, this responsibility is now becoming recognised not only as “the right thing to do” but something we’ll be held accountable for by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), financial providers and the general public - to name a few.

With the introduction of their Single Assessment Framework later this year, the CQC has highlighted this requirement in their new quality statement:

We understand any negative impact of our activities on the environment and we strive to make a positive contribution in reducing it and support people to do the same.

The questions we have as care providers will be, how do we approach this process? How do we evidence our progress and its impact? How much does it cost? Is it achievable? What are the benefits to our organisation?

A recent survey suggests that more than 50% of care providers don’t have a strategy to address environmental sustainability or a plan to cut carbon emissions.

For me this isn’t surprising due to the recent challenges our sector has gone through in terms of the pandemic, recruitment and retention of staff, and declining occupancy for many residential homes. However, as we emerge from this these challenges we need to make environmental strategies a priority.

Aside from the fundamental and obvious reasons for focusing on sustainability to help our planet, there are other reasons to prioritise sustainability too.

As momentum increases and public perception demands more action, our operational reputation comes under the spotlight.

The recent staffing challenges have meant we’ve had to be creative and innovative in order to attract new recruits, but a recent UK survey suggests that younger people in particular, really do care about a company’s approach to sustainability. So much so that up to 40% will leave their role if they’re not satisfied with their company’s commitment to the environment and governance. Even more will leave if there’s no plan in place at all. This could seriously impact our workforce unless action is taken.

This must start from the top of organisations and become embedded in the culture and values. The CQC will focus on this in terms of measuring if a service is ’well led’.

How do we approach this? There are many companies that can guide you through this as a process and create a strategy, but they charge and with finances still in recovery mode we may wish to start small.

Asking your bank for advice and understanding what your peer groups, such as local networks, are doing is a free and effective approach. You may also wish to discuss with your CQC inspector what they expect to see, how they can help you and what examples they have from other services. Finally, do some research – there’s an incredible amount of advice and guidance out there for us all to draw from.

Most importantly for me is to embed sustainability and its benefits into the heart of your organisation. This is the foundation to your strategy and will determine its success.

Top tips to support sustainability

• Technology: switching to more digital solutions can help in many ways. For example, switching to digital care planning will mean less paper being used and less printing. It can be argued that the workforce becomes more efficient as a result of moving to e-plans, plus transparency and auditing becomes more accessible so this has other benefits too.

• Energy and efficiency saving: look to invest in and implement renewable energy projects. Monitor temperatures across your home/office and adapt accordingly. Check there’s sufficient insulation in your building to stop your expensive heat from escaping. Turn lights off when not needed, and change to energy efficient fittings.

• Other considerations depending on your service type could include car sharing, reducing food wastage, and minimising overuse of your chemical dosing systems,

It all counts!

One thing is for sure is that this cannot be ignored. Recruitment and retention can be affected in a positive way and public perception will no doubt affect occupancy in the future if people know you’re operating ethically and efficiently.

For me it’s a win-win. Your organisation becomes more efficient, your overheads reduce, your staffing increases and occupancy recovers – or at least that’s the plan.

More information:

Skills for Care provides a range of resources to help regulated services meet or exceed CQC inspection. We’ll be launching a new edition of our GO Online: Inspection toolkit shaped around the CQC Single Assessment Framework on 28 March 2023.

This new toolkit will include further recommendations, practical examples, and resources to help you to reflect on your current approach to environmental sustainability.

Find out more on our webpage.

View our webinars.

Find more information to keep you up-to-date with best practice with our #KeepLearning spotlight.

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