Health and Social Care Committee

Inquiry into residential care for older people

RC24 – Pendine Park Care Organisation

Residential Care for Older People

Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the inquiry.

Pendine Park Care Organisation is an independent, privately owned business offering a wide range of care services, including residential care. We have been established 26 years and, over this time, have seen our capacity to provide residential / nursing care increase from 12 beds to 336 beds. We are based in Wrexham across two locations.

The process by which older people enter residential care.

· The eligibility criteria bar is being constantly lifted and this serves as a primary control measure for deciding who may receive residential care services.

· Coupled with this, through their purchasing strategies, commissioners in reality control the market, leaving providers with the challenge and uncertainty of often having to respond retrospectively.

· There is real concern that the foregoing influences are increasingly been driven by financial budgetary considerations as opposed to ensuring the provision of the right care in the right place.

· So much more could be achieved, in terms of the delivery of value based quality care services, though a true and effective spirit of joint working between the public and independent sectors

· We fully promote and support the concept of reablement and service delivery to people in their own homes. Sadly, there are inconsistencies across Wales in approach execution and resourcing which diminish both impact and potential outcomes.

· We certainly see opportunities to use the independent sector to provide/ supplement reablement which is currently under utilized. For this to succeed there will need to be a significant change in stakeholder mindsets to ensure the removal of over protective attitudes to their own budgets.

· To achieve much greater fairness and consistency in areas of contracts, fee levels and the roll out of new models of care provision, we fully support the standardisation of care packages across Wales.

· It is felt that current methods of accessing information on how best to tap into care provision services for older people is confusing, unclear and not in an easily understandable format.

The capacity of the residential care sector to meet the demand for services from older people.

· The scenario we currently see is one of diminishing capacity due to old stock which is no longer of sufficient size or fit for purpose.

· The concern is that unless addressed this will over time create a vacuum for this client group who cannot be cared for within their own homes.

· There needs to be a longer term plan worked out in partnership with all local stakeholders, including the independent sector, to ensure adequate and appropriate provision for the future. Within this, key areas of focus will need to include:

1. the setting of realistic and sustainable funding levels.

2. a way of ensuring the removal of purchaser/ provider conflict through a mechanism that allows for much closer co-operation and consultation.

· Bed blocking. We see opportunities here for ground breaking innovation within the independent sector that would also offer significant savings to the NHS.

· To really understand recruitment/ retention trends and influencing factors we see the need for workforce monitoring at national level.

· WAG also needs to collect data on training within the sector and produce a register that will link into the Care Council of Wales.

· The national standing of the care practitioner job role needs to be raised to provide professional status and standardised training opportunities.

The effectiveness of the regulation and inspection arrangements.

· Current registration and inspection routines are very much focussed on process. We advocate a change of emphasis to one of assessment of outcomes as this will more accurately portray the actual experience of residents which has to be of paramount importance.

· In comparison to other sectors, care providers are heavily regulated but we seriously question the knowledge and suitability of inspectors to assess/comment on new and emerging models of care given that their experiences hitherto are not research or practice based.

· We see a need for a research based tool to measure quality of services and outcomes and thereby move away from findings based on the personal perceptions of inspectors. This would also serve to enhance the consistency of audits.

· Conditions of registration often hinder the delivery of diverse services by providers often leading to the unnecessary upheaval of residents having to move to other settings.

Jen Roberts

Gill Hughes

Gwynfor Jones

Executive Team