STORM Consultancy Blog

A good review of the recently launched CQC website…written by Tony Upward

Having been asked to write a review on the new CQC website, here you will find my thoughts as I guide you through the steps I undertook.  The article has been written in a “take you through it” style and as a colleague pointed out, if I had more time I could have written less.

In order to simplify both the public and providers access to information the CQC (Care Quality Commision) have spent £200k plus on redeveloping their website located at http://www.cqc.org.uk.  Not totally sure the cost is relevant but lets take a look.  At first glance you can quickly identify the area you wish to look at thanks to 5 well placed tabs.  For the purpose of this exercise we shall concentrate on the Care homes sector.

There is a lot of space wasted at the top of the page with three information bars above a huge banner.  I can understand the large navigation bar however as space is a premium more could have been done to make it even simpler to navigate – lots of scrolling up and down required.

To assess the site lets set a few criteria to search on:

1. Find information about a care home we are looking to use for Mum
2. Make a complaint or whistle blow
3. Rate a care home
4. Make a suggestion for improvement
5. Find a downloadable document to browse at our leisure – lets choose the “Provider Compliance Assessment” to search for.

So I think you will agree there is nothing that should be too hard there.  Our journey begins.

1.  Find information about a care home we are looking to use for Mum

Let’s find information about a care home with nursing in the town of Weymouth in Dorset.  From the home page, lets select the “care homes” button and instantly we are presented with a search box.  In here we put in the town of Weymouth and click search.

We quickly found the home on the first page.  Thumbs up CQC.  You can immediately see 3 ticks representing minimum compliance and 2 crosses where improvements are required (there is no other type of compliance – a home simply complies or not) .

The standard 5 areas assessed for compliance are:

1. Standards of treating people with respect and involving them in their care
2. Standards of providing care, treatment & support which meets people’s needs
3. Standards of caring for people safely & protecting them from harm
4. Standards of staffing
5. Standards of management

These improvements will be of varying degrees of seriousness and the CQC can act accordingly, if a home is non compliant it is within the powers of the CQC to let them correct the areas whilst still operating if they are deemed not serious enough for closure.  It is good to see straight away that the home we had in mind for dear old Mum is now questionable.  Even more so as the improvements required for compliance are stated to be from the last inspection in May 2011 – the crosses though have instantly made me concerned about placing a loved one here for care.

If we click on the home name we are taken further into the site.  Interestingly we can now expand the areas that have the crosses and ticks against them.  Looking at the list we can now see 6 standards – one new one has appeared that was not on the previous page? we can drill down on the two black crosses and read about the failings in these areas.  And there is a useful key at the bottom now that explains further what the symbols mean.  Two crosses – so the black cross is the ‘not so bad but enough to turn me off using the home’ – the red ones are ‘the ones to keep an eye on’!

Now we are still interested in this sixth tick, again, why is it not on the previous page? – let’s expand it and see what information we have here –

6.    Additional standards of management

Now we can see that the home is under the control of an acting manager, and that the acting manager in NOT registered with the CQC.  Outcome 24 has surprisingly been met despite this and the CQC do not find this an area for concern so the standard is presented a green tick.

Now we are going to look at the further information available to us about this standard.  We can clearly see the link “See our inspector’s full report about this standard from 19th May 2011” lets click it and see where it takes us.

Straight away we can see it’s meeting the standard as before, but this time it has a little more “evidence” from the inspector.  We can see the acting manager has been in post for six months and as yet has not had the opportunity to fill in the paperwork to the CQC?

Homes across the country are rejoicing as they seemingly can pass this standard without a registered manager.

Now we are feeling a little more aware of the site so we go back to one of the black crosses and expand it, again lets click on further information.  Wow – formal substantiated allegations of abuse…. Some strong language here but a pass is a pass.  Well so far its not looking good, We might have to find another home for poor old Mum.

A point to note is the right hand side of the page – it clearly shows this home is part of a larger company and it lists other services run by this larger company, great if you wanted to cross reference the homes to get an idea of the corporate culture towards complying to these standards.  I myself see this as a positive improvement, if it was there before I have to say I never noticed.

Now looking at the top of the page we can quickly see two other tabs.

The middle tab lets us view the inspector’s assessments and some comments from people visiting the home.  It’s the third tab that’s interesting though.  Named “Please tell us your experience”, effectively it’s a form but with areas for free text.  Straight away we can see that if you have urgent concerns there is a number you can call – that’s good.  You can also write positive or negative things in the form with an urgent concerns field and the option to let the CQC know if you intend to make a formal complaint too.

Whilst this clearly answers my question 2 stated at the beginning of this exercise I do wonder if this is too far into the website and a little cumbersome to get to and in a position only users of a service would find it?  All in all though so far I have to admit it has been simple to use and clear – even if we have had to scroll up and down a lot.

2.  Make a complaint or whistleblow

Now let’s say we have been working for a care home for the last year and found some practice that is abusive to the residents.  We wish to report this as the manager clearly takes no notice of us.  Back at the home page again.

Lets start by just typing the word complaint in the search box on the homepage, the search worked very fast and lots of links here but not really anything relevant at first glance.  Now just as I was about to click off (I’m an impatient browser) I see the last link ”how to complain about a health or social care service” could that be of use?  Lets look.  Well here we are presented with a pdf to download.  Lets do so and after flicking through to chapter 4 we find that they recommend that we complain to the home in question.  As I mentioned in my scenario that’s a no go, so reading on.  Ok, it would seem we have to complain to social services and we can get the details from the minefield that is direct.gov.uk.  A different result to my findings in my first point above.  I have to say I am a little disappointed in this result.  If there was a quick way to complain or whistle blow at the touch of a button even if it made us choose the home as part of the process and we ended up at the same form we found earlier on in the homes section it would have been better.  Do we really feel comfortable enough to write to the social services?  What if someone found out we complained?  I think you get my point.  Half good, half bad here – I find the water a bit muddy.

Now I’m feeling foolish – the 5 tabs I highlighted at the beginning – to the right is one called “Your Experience “– I never really noticed it with the black background before.

Straight away it has a complaints section, it’s tailored for every sector so lets choose the easy reading and scroll down, it appears that the CQC do not deal with individual complaints, so again we are redirected to the Social Services?  One would think the very form you can fill in on the third tab of the actual care home section could be sent to both the CQC and the Social Services for further investigation or analysis live by email?  I feel I should look into it more as i’m not quite happy with that response.

So sorry CQC it’s a thumbs down for me.

3.  Rate a care home

Back to the home page and this time we wish to give feedback on a fantastic home we know about in Leeds.

This is short and sweet – we now can quickly find the home and on the third tab “please tell us your experience”  we find the same form we identified in criteria 1.

In the form you can write some free text about your experience and leave a positive comment.  We can do so anonymously or leave your details and it’s very clear and easy to use.  I feel I’m starting to get the hang of this web lark.

4.  Make a suggestion or improvement

Now it’s surprisingly simple to let the CQC know what you think of the new site.  The banners I blatantly moaned about in the beginning of this article now glare at me in a shade of  yellow as they smugly point out in blue writing on a yellow background “What do you think? Please let us know”

A simple form is shown on clicking the link.  3 little questions,

1. Was there anything you couldn’t find?
2. Is there anything you think we should improve?
3. Are there any things you really like?

It could not be easier to let the CQC know what you feel about the site – a big thumbs up.

5.  Find a downloadable document to browse at my leisure – we randomly chose “Provider Compliance Assessment”

Ok there’s a big search box crying to be used so lets give that a try.  Lets type in “Provider Compliance Assessment” a little slower this time but  we get a page of results and bingo – first on the list, well done CQC.  We will pretend this never worked as otherwise it will be far too short a read.

So from the homepage we click the second tab – Care homes.   Realisation hits as we now realise that we won’t find anything here as its for those looking to use a service.  Back to the homepage and this time we select from the main CQC banner – “For organisations we regulate”.

Straight away, notice the “Blow the whistle banner” I feel a little foolish again now but why could I not find this earlier?

Under this there is a popular downloads section and a popular pages section.  We can clearly see legislation listed and reading down past notifications we find Compliance.  Clearly listed under compliance is “Provider Compliance Assessment” and clicking this takes me to an area where we can download all 16 files, brilliant and not to shabby.

To sum up:

It’s always easier to criticise and find fault, but I have to say I found what I was looking for quickly with only a few annoyances.  Yes there are things that can be improved and I am sure in time they will be.  To be fair to the CQC – love them or hate them, no matter what time or money they spent on refurbishing the website I feel they have taken on board feedback and what they have done is a definite improvement. For me it does show they are listening and albeit slow, progress is being made.

Yes you cannot grade a home and 5 ticks seems a bit lame as information to give to someone making a decision on where to place a loved one, and there is still no real quality differential but ignore the politics of the CQC for a moment and I think you will have to say that all in all they have done a good job in relatively short period of time, in a time where the sector has seen the most turmoil for decades.

You will note I have only used the care home sector as my guinea pig but as always I appreciate any feedback or your own comments and experiences with the new CQC website.   After all, every day is a school day…

Night all  @tonyupward

Matt Dunn from STORM Consultancy watched over by the Grim Reaper!

‘ASBESTOS’, even the word alone strikes fear into the majority of people.  Shrouded in mystery and myth, little is commonly known about this ubiquitous building material that surrounds our families, our children at school and even our colleagues at work. It is everywhere.  Yet this little 9 letter word is responsible for 4500 deaths per year. Sadly, death is agonizing and slow and proudly holds the mantel as being biggest UK industrial killer.  Alarmingly, it is predicted to get worse and that by 2015 this silent reaper will cut short the lives of 5500+ per year.   So what makes this mysterious material so lethal and why can’t we stop the march of this hungry assassin?

In this article Jonathan Cunningham MBE from STORM Consultancy attempts to demystify and has recently joined the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) initiative to pledge hundreds of free training hours to local tradesmen.

Mention the word ‘asbestos’ and three things spring to mind, ‘garages roofs’, ‘dangerous’ and ‘expensive’!  Everyone has heard about it but sadly few are genuinely knowledgeable leaving the doorway open for the unscrupulous to exploit the ignorant.

It is a naturally occurring fibrous mineral mined across the world.  Largest produces include South Africa, Russia and Canada.  It has been used by man since civilization began and was even known as the ancient jewel in 4000 bc. It was first used as wicks in lamps and even used to embalm the bodies of Egyptian Pharaohs!  Over the years Britain has imported 6 million tones since the late 1800s and has used it in just about every item you could imagine; even underwear and cigarettes!

But how have we been seduced by asbestos?  The physical properties of asbestos are northing less than outstanding.  A single fibre is 100 times stronger than a fibre of steel, it resists fire, it has fabulous sound proofing qualities, it is the best electrical insulator known and it is resistant to the ravages of weather and chemicals. This versatility meant that it has been used in just about every building, textile and composite known.  As a nation our love for asbestos peaked in the 1950s and 60s, even Marvel Comics brought out Asbestos Man to rid the world of all evils. We used it everywhere; ships, trains and boilers are even lined with it. We have fire proofed buildings with it, we have used it for tiling, flooring, roofs, pipe lagging even toilets are made of the stuff. It is in schools, factories, houses, cinemas, even your common pub loo is full of it. To the unknowing it is only on next door’s garage roof; to the informed it is everywhere! But since the 70s our love affair for asbestos has turned into a prolonged an acrimonious divorce as the dangers of this silent mistress have become apparent.

There are 3 main types of asbestos, white, brown and blue.  White asbestos is what covers your garage roof, ‘Brown’ is ideal fire insulation and commonly found in converted houses, schools and factories. But ‘Blue’ is the worst type, as it has tiny super straight fibres that are more easily inhaled and puncture your lung lining. They are so small 2 million fibres could sit on the end of a sewing needle!

The health effects are well advertised but little understood.  The problem is that once these fibres penetrate your lungs they are unable to be released so remain trapped forever causing more damage.  Common effects include asbestosis (a sever form of asthma), Plaural Plaque (thickening of the lungs lining) and mesothelioma (asbestos related lungs cancer). To date the youngest person to die has been Leigh Carlisle (28) from Manchester who died in 2008 from mesothelioma.  Typically symptoms show themselves between 10 – 40 years after exposure. Sadly only now those who breathed in the toxic dust following the collapse of the Twin Towers some are showing shadowing on their lungs.  The real death toll from that terrible day will be must higher!

So why are people still dying?  Well, it was only until 1999 that all asbestos was finally banned in the UK.  This means that only houses built after 2001 are positively asbestos free.  That will come as a shocking surprise to many.  However, the real cause is the long latency period before this horrendous disease becomes evident.  Everyday tradesmen and women are unknowingly exposed to these lethal asbestos fibres as they cut, saw and tamper with this material.  Plumbers, electricians, painters, shop refitters, carpenters, those involved in IT and demolition are all hazardous risk employment sectors.  Sadly, complacency is everywhere and lack of awareness and shear ignorance is the main cause of death for many.  Question how many nursing homes have an asbestos survey? If they haven’t they are breaking the law and putting residents and staff at risk.    Most importantly there is no exposure safe limit; all exposure is hazardous and should be avoided at all costs.

So what should you do to fight off the Reaper?

• Manage your asbestos in your building; ensure you know where it is.  Commission an asbestos management survey.

• Protect your contractors.  If you are refurbishing or demolishing a building then commission a pre-demolition and refurbishment asbestos survey.

• If your staff interfere work on buildings (e.g. caretakers or trades) then ensure they are asbestos aware trained.

Southport based STORM Consultancy is one of the few UK companies that are playing its part in a Britain wide drive to help tradesmen protect themselves from asbestos.

STORM Consultancy has accepted the invitation from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) by pledging 200 free training hours to help reach a target of 4500 a number which reflects the approximate number of deaths each year from asbestos related diseases.

The free asbestos awareness training will be available throughout October and November and is aimed at tradesmen who are most likely to disturb the fibres as they go about their work, around 20 a week lose their lives to asbestos-related diseases.

STORM is offering a discounted rate for all asbestos surveys booked over October and November.  [Quote Grim Reaper]

STORM Consultancy will be delivering FREE asbestos awareness training on Thursday 13^th October on Merseyside.  If you would like to book a place or places for your staff then phone STORM Consultancy on 0845 894 6342 or visit info@stormconsultancyuk.com

Don’t let the grim reaper win…phone STORM to book your FREE place.