One of the key messages from our State of Care report for 2020/21 was that staffing pressures were most acutely felt by people using and working in adult social care, including care homes and home-care services.
We have continued to focus on this issue, and this month we show that staff vacancy rates have continued to increase across England, nearly doubling from 6% at the end of April, to 11.5% at the end of December 2021. Our reporting also gives a breakdown of vacancies by region.
We will continue to monitor workforce vacancy rates through workforce survey questions, the Provider Information Return and data gathered and shared with us by other organisations. We’re doing this so that we can talk about the impact workforce pressures are having on people, the quality of care they receive and on the shape of the adult social care market. We will share with you key themes as they emerge.
We know that visiting plays a vital role in the quality of care for many people who access care, and their loved ones. The majority of providers and registered managers are making every effort to follow the latest guidance. We are asking that if something changes and you are no longer able to do this then you should speak with your CQC inspector as soon as possible.
A group of stakeholders –The Relatives & Residents Association, Rights for Residents, the National Institution for Health Research and King's College London – have made some resources available to support providers during outbreaks. These include a co-produced fact sheet on the essential care giver role that care homes can refer to and share with residents, their families and carers.
The group has also written to Directors of Public Health, Directors of Adult Social Services, Local Authority Public Health Teams and UKHSA Health Protection Teams, on supporting visiting in care homes, promoting a better understanding of the role and its value.
 Quarterly pulse survey on CQCs approach
To help us ensure we are delivering the most effective regulatory approach we would like your feedback on how we have regulated over the last three months.
Your feedback will help us understand how our regulatory approach should develop going forward.
Go straight to the survey and share your views here.
Latest projects on citizen lab
To support the delivery of the ambitions outlined in our new strategy we are developing a single assessment framework, consisting of quality statements, that will replace our current Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs) and associated prompts.
We also plan to use ‘I statements’ as the starting point for our assessment framework, taking the important first step towards truly regulating through the eyes of the public.
We've developed three surveys on our quality statements and I statements, you can take the surveys directly by clicking the links below:
To discuss your thoughts and ideas on how we're implementing our strategy login or sign-up to our participation platform.
 The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) would like to thank care providers and registered managers for the time and effort you've invested throughout the pandemic by regularly submitting data through Capacity Tracker. This intelligence has been invaluable in informing a timely response to the challenges arising.
Throughout the coming months DHSC want to work with providers, commissioners, and regulators to develop a streamlined and focused approach that:
- minimises reporting burden by collecting data once and sharing with all those that need it, e.g. LAs, CQC, national government, etc.
- maximises value by providing timely and useful insight that is available to all.
Working with CQC and other stakeholders across the sector DHSC will hold workshops, from spring 2022, to ensure that your views help shape the future approach.
They'd like to hold an initial introductory workshop to give a full overview of plans followed by specific theme-based workshops, e.g. on workforce and quality.
More details will be provided in a future bulletin, but if you have any questions please contact: providerdata@dhsc.gov.uk.
 The National Care Forum (NCF), supported by Skills for Care, is holding a Managers Conference open to managers from all care settings across the country, both NCF members and non-members in the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors.
The Conference supports managers in their pivotal role, as their services move from crisis to recovery, and helps them to support their teams to build resilience for the years ahead.
For more information including offers on bookings go to the NCF website.
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