I am very good at art, textiles and singing. I am also very good at writing. I felt awkward saying that. It is all true, but the culture we live in does not give us the best support to ‘advertise’.
Those that do well across the board
It is clearly different with your service. We are talking about supporting people and keeping them safe. CQC’s Celebrating Good Care looks at ‘services who are getting it right’, but there are also many more that have aspects of good that may not be rated good overall.
Grow the good
If you have pockets of good practice, use those things to question other areas. They may well provide you with an attitude, style of management or practical things that will help.
Celebrating success with staff
Make sure you pull out the lines that express what you have done well and share it with your staff.
Sharing your successes with staff is important in helping build this. Positive input into people can allow them confidence. It may be that they also have gifts and attributes they hide under a bushel and encouragement can help them bloom.
Be mindful that the Francis report, highlighted where at Mid Staffordshire they chose to lean on favourable reports rather than what staff were saying. It is vital that if staff, service users or others feel differently, they are given a voice and listened to through effective policies and procedures such as whistleblowing and complaints.
Celebrating success with service users and explaining the problems
It can be difficult if you receive a CQC report that is not what you had hoped for. The final rating in multi-colour is, let us face it, often what people focus on.
That happened to us when my husband went into hospital recently. I read the CQC report showing required improvement across the board in all but one area. I was very upset. SAFETY had requires improvement. Oh my goodness what was going to happen to him???? A family member who is a doctor explained the detail. The area although serious, would have no effect on us, but Caring in which they received Good was absolutely abundant and made a huge difference to our experience.
However ‘user friendly’ the reports are supposed to be. They are not always clear. Or sometimes outdated before they hit the website. Explaining the shortfalls and how service users can contribute to fresh ideas is vital and celebrating achievements breeds confidence.
Spreading the good word
There are ways that you can share what you have done well – you don’t need to be outstanding to share what has worked for you in pockets.
- Join a CQC group
- Speak up at external meetings
- Use it in your advertising – write a blog about it!
Blowing your trumpet at inspection time
As the PIR evolves, the opportunity is in your hands to say what you do well, balanced by what you are working on. Disseminating and celebrating your achievements with staff will show when inspectors come – They will talk about the good as well as any concerns and it will be noticed.
So get your highlighter pen out! Go through those reports and audits where things were not as good as you had hoped – learn from it, but be inspired in NEON GREEN (or a colour of your preference!) at the bits to be proud of.
