Navigating Change: QCS Compliance and the Success of Thornfield Care

When Kris Selvaratnam first took over Thornfield Care Home in September 2022, she wanted to provide the highest standards of care. Thornfield Care Home is owned by Emerald Care Providers and provides a residential care service specialised in caring for adults over the age of 65 years with dementia and mental health conditions. With her intensive care background from working at leading NHS hospitals, she knew the importance of having systems and processes in place that ensured her team could provide the best possible safe and compliant care.

The existing supplier of compliance software fell short in many areas, not least because the policies weren’t being updated (some were over a year out-of-date), there was no way to evidence that staff had read and understood the policies, there was no guidance on best practices, no specialist support for dementia, and overall it was a very complex system to use. The viability of the care home was at stake, as continuing on the current path would carry huge risks, such as not delivering safe and compliant care, getting a poor rating from the CQC, losing commissioned work from the local authority, not being able to fill all the beds, not being able to hire good quality staff, and also the risk of legal challenges from staff, residents or their families.

For Kris, changing to QCS Compliance Centre was a huge weight off her shoulders. It is very user friendly for her and her staff to use, including a mobile app that enables 24×7 access whether online or offline. You can easily see all the policies and resources available, and they are always up-to-date. Service User records are easy to maintain, including medical history and care plans. “Once we had selected QCS, we were able to set the system up in a very short period”, commented Kris. “It is easy to personalise the policies, and there are plenty of videos and help sheets available in the system. And, if you ever need them, the amazing QCS support team is always there at the end of the phone.”

Another aspect that is vital to delivering safe and compliant care is the support for learning that is provided by QCS. Kris needed to be sure that she was up-to-speed with all regulatory requirements and she learnt everything she needed to know from the policies and resources available within QCS. On top of ensuring compliance with the latest regulations, QCS helps guide and support the delivery of the best possible care. “QCS resources are my heart”, said Kris. “There is everything I need to help me learn and to help me ensure my team are learning.”

QCS recently introduced QCS Learning Centre, which includes learning pathways that provide a guided and evidenced path through QCS policies and resources. “I can use QCS learning pathways, or create my own, and assign them to staff individually or as a team”, continued Kris. “I know how much time each team member has spent on each aspect of the learning pathway, and I can include a reflective learning record to capture their experiences, so I can be absolutely sure they have the skills and knowledge required to deliver safe and compliant care.”

Kris also took advantage of QCS Dementia Centre, which provides content dedicated to helping provide better care for people living with dementia, and includes the academically validated QCS PAL Instrument. The care team uses this to help provide the right kind of practical help to residents with dementia and other forms of cognitive difficulties, so they can support them to live their lives to the full and do as many personal, domestic and leisure activities as possible. “Using PAL, we know the level of dementia for each resident, and the resources within QCS are aligned to each level. It is so important to know how to support people with dementia in the right way, as that enables them to have better lives, and leads to fewer incidents to handle as well as less wasted time for staff.”

Using QCS has enabled Thornfield Care Home to achieve a maximum score of 10 on carehome.co.uk for all recent reviews which has led to more funded places from the local authority. It doesn’t stop there though, as change is constant in the social care sector, and Kris really values having the support from QCS to ensure she is always improving. “Not only is the content always up-to-date, the software is also continually evolving, with improvements and enhancements coming every month. I have just implemented QCS Quality Centre and I’m excited about the time it is already saving us in conducting audits and mock inspections, and in providing evidence of good governance in line with the new single assessment framework from the CQC. It is very easy to set up and use, just like everything from QCS!”

And her deputy manager sums it up well, “I was new to care and QCS Compliance Centre helped me quickly gain all the knowledge I needed. It is definitely a continuous learning platform, and I have also found it very easy to use the audit and mock inspection capabilities within Quality Centre.”

To find out more about QCS, contact our compliance advisors on 0333-405-3333, request a free trial at https://www.qcs.co.uk/free-trial or email: [email protected].