Background
The care industry is becoming increasingly competitive and the growing number of elderly people within society means that the market is growing. Care homes need to differentiate themselves within the market via the quality of their staff and the levels of care they provide.
Issue
Orchard Homes recognised the need for high quality, well trained staff who were able to provide consistently high standards of care across their homes. They wanted their residents to be happy, offered nutritional, tasty food and provided with a broad range of social activities. They expected consistently high standards across their network of homes.
Solution
Red22 researched and developed a range of detailed, user friendly manuals which covered all aspects of care home operations. These included:
• Training manual to develop a standardised approach to new staff induction, training and employee communication. Red22 wrote best practise procedures for every aspect of life in a home.
• Catering manual to ensure a consistently high level of food quality, health, safety and hygiene.
• Recipe book to deliver healthy meals and consistent standards across the network of homes.
• Activity manual to make sure that all homes offer the residents a regular choice and broad range of activities. The manual provides detailed instructions on how to plan, promote and deliver each activity.
• Record keeping manual, re-creating and re-formatting recording forms where necessary.
All manuals were written with the end users (carers and residents) in mind, in a friendly tone using everyday language. They were straightforward and easy to use.
To write the manuals, Red22 reviewed and analysed every aspect of life in a home. In addition, Red22 undertook substantial research into/from:
• carers, cooks, residents
• relevant external organisations and experts e.g. Age Concern, Alzheimer's Society, nutritionist, physiotherapist
• legal requirements such as legislation and standards e.g. CSCI and health and safety such as HACCP
• clients' suppliers
• internet
Results
The result was that practices and processes across the homes were standardised. Training was standardized, improved and increased across the company via the manual and was compulsory for all new starters. Subsequently, best practice was implemented throughout all the care homes.
A standardized, seasonal, healthy menu was introduced across the care home network and a wide selection of step by step recipes were written to ensure that quality and presentation of food was consistent across the homes. The production of the Activity Manual ensured that residents were offered a choice of activities and that these included a mix of both physical and mental activities.
All these initiatives resulted in an improved quality of life for the resident.
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