Care Improvement Works - new online resource

Managers of care services for adults can now find reliable resources to support improvement through one an easy-to-use online resource.

Two of the leading improvement support organisations in England, Skills for Care and the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), have come together to develop a joint offer of improvement support for registered providers of social care for adults in England. Care Improvement Works gives managers, owners and care staff the confidence to challenge and change practice.

The two organisations have developed the online resource, which pulls together all their relevant, freely available resources that are useful for care providers. The new resource also points to related resources from the Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) partnership, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Care providers can use the online resource before and after inspection, or at any time, to identify products that support improvement in areas where they may have concerns, or to review their current practice against recognised good practice. People who use services, and carers, can also use the products to challenge their care providers.

All the products on Care Improvement Works are mapped to the Care Quality Commission's five questions and key lines of enquiry (KLOEs):

Are they safe?
Are they effective?
Are they caring?
Are they responsive?
Are they well-led?

The project is jointly led by SCIE and Skills for Care, with funding support from TLAP. TLAP are involved, to make sure there is a focus on personalised care and support that improves people's lives. Care Improvement Works has been developed in partnership with care providers, people who use services, carers, commissioners, the Care Quality Commission and the Department of Health.

Sheila Scott, Chair of the Care Providers Alliance and member of the Steering Group overseeing the project says:

Managers of care services want quick access to reliable advice and improvement support. The Care Improvement Works service should help us to do that. It's great to see Skills for Care and SCIE coming together to support us in this way. Grouping resources according to CQC's inspection questions will give us a really practical route into a wide range of information.

Clenton Farquharson, Co-chair of Think Local Act Personal, and member of the Steering Group overseeing the project says:

Improvement is all about confidence: the confidence of care managers and staff to change, and the confidence of people who use services and carers to challenge. SCIE and Skills for Care's new service should help to build that confidence by giving access to relevant, reliable support.

Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care at the Care Quality Commission, Andrea Sutcliffe, says:

Since October 2014, our new style inspections have rated around 60% of adult social care services as Outstanding or Good, which is great news. But it does mean we have found 40% of services to be Inadequate or Requiring Improvement and that has got to change. I am delighted with the development of this new resource by our partners at the Social Care Institute for Excellence and Skills for Care. I hope providers will make full use of this support so that they can make improvements for the benefit of people using services, their families and carers - which is what we all want to see.

Sharon Allen, Chief Executive of Skills for Care says:

By combining efforts, Skills for Care and SCIE aim to make it easier for more than 17000 care providers to find information to support improvement in one place. The Care Improvement Works service is just the start of our plans for joint working to produce practical tools for the sector.

Tony Hunter, Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) says:

Skills for Care and SCIE are both committed to helping care providers along the improvement journey - whatever stage they find themselves. We know it can be confusing to work out where to turn for reliable support, which is why we have come together to, as an initial offer, develop a single entry point to our resources.