Residential care home, 2 staff looking after 36 residents?

[AANDYY]

A friend of mine has mentioned to me a few times that the Care home he works at, sometimes they are short staffed and at night there is 2 staff on for 36 residents (normally 3 staff), 2 staff seems to few, Imagine if there was 2 'incidents' then another 'incident' occurred!

Does any one know if there is a minimum number of residents per staff?

General staff motivation there at the moment is low as well.

He works nights and the care home is a private one.

 

[Howard]

I feel really sorry for the elderly that get put into a 'care home'.

Exorbitant costs , and very little actual 'care' , they are a cash cow for unscruplous operators.

Sure , there may be some good ones , but the majority seem designed to bleed every last penny of the old dears estate to pay for the costs before she pops off to the next life.

Makes me sad.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Welcome to profit driven healthcare, where the pay is crap and the conditions are worse.

Always amazes me why people work there.

With regards to the 'care' received by the elderly, animals get better protected.


An absolute disgrace.

 

[verytalldave]

Residential "care homes" have different regulations governing them to "nursing homes". Nursing homes need to have properly trained and qualified nurses on duty at all times. Care homes dont and can operate with minimal staff with only minimal qualifications.

 

[jepho]

A friend of mine has mentioned to me a few times that the Care home he works at, sometimes they are short staffed and at night there is 2 staff on for 36 residents (normally 3 staff), 2 staff seems to few, Imagine if there was 2 'incidents' then another 'incident' occurred!

Does any one know if there is a minimum number of residents per staff?

General staff motivation there at the moment is low as well.

He works nights and the care home is a private one.

and...?

Care & residential homes are difficult to staff. The requirement to have qualified staff extends as far as the overall supervisor. The rest of the staff may have completed some basic courses but the nature of the work does not require it. As far as I can tell, it is only where medical procedures and long term care plans are carried out that qualified supervision is a must.

The pay rates for care personnel do vary a little but mostly it is at the national average rate and the job can be a thankless task when slogging through the basic toilet and food needs of the average resident. 1 person to 15 people is about what you can expect in hospitals, even where there is the additional burden of medical care to consider. The staff are not motivated because they are working alone and isolation leads to demotivation for a variety of well-documented reasons.

I would suggest that the existing staff try to work together in pairs and see if the care of 30 souls is possible between two people, given the time constraints of a shift. Night care is less onerous in that one may expect to assist people to the toilet but largely, they will be asleep during what are considered to be 'silent' hours. If the staff are preparing breakfast, then it could be an additional burden that proves to be too much for the shift.

If it worries your friend and there are clear cases of neglect which can be cited, then reporting the establishment anonymously to the social services department of the local authority (who will be involved in the licensing process) can move staffing issues to the top of the agenda. The reporting staff should be aware that they may well lose their jobs, if their tale-telling is discovered by the employer or the care home may be subject to a forcible closure.

 

[Rory]

Does any one know if there is a minimum number of residents per staff?

There isn't a specific number - it's supposed to be assessed based on the needs of residents.

My Mum's in a place with just 14 residents and people that come in from other homes rave about how well staffed it is, but I guess there can never be less than two so the ratio will look great.

 

[jocasta]

This might be helpful; Care Quality Commission

 

[StevenN]

I think you will find that the staff numbers are calculated on the needs of the residents rather than the quantity.
Each resident should be assesed and their individual dependancy needs are given a score.
The higher the total score the more carers are required.

 

[Mike Walker]

Check out Panorama from last night to see how bad things can get in a privately run care centre and be really concerned.

Reassuring thing is there are watchdogs overseeing everything so we can all rest easy when we get to that stage in our lives.

 

[Scott_F]

Reassuring thing is there are watchdogs overseeing everything so we can all rest easy when we get to that stage in our lives.

Such sarcasm !

 

[StevenN]

It has been on the news that arrests have been made following the program.

My opinion is that the program makers are just as guilty of allowing abuse to happen as some of the carers.
The program should have ended with them saying that the evidence was passes on to the police and arrest prosecutions have been successful.

 

[E CLASS]

It has been on the news that arrests have been made following the program.

My opinion is that the program makers are just as guilty of allowing abuse to happen as some of the carers.
The program should have ended with them saying that the evidence was passes on to the police and arrest prosecutions have been successful.

I think the programme and findings were passed to the police.

This country is going downhill fast.

Literally everywhere you look something is going wrong.

What's actually great about this country anymore???

 

[StevenN]

You are right as I have said it is in the news that they have made arrests.
My point is that they made their program then passes the info on.
The abuse would have carried on till yesterday

 

[grober]

Its a reflection on the value we all place on the care of the vulnerable and infirm people in our society. People get very upset when they hear about such inhuman treatment of the elderly but ask them to pay a bit more council /income tax which funds this area and their attitude changes. Only when there are queues of highly motivated young people all applying for jobs in the care sector because the training, pay, working conditions and personal kudos in society are so good will things change. At the moment all that many would appear to aspire to is winning the X factor or become professional footballers. Why is that?

 

[E CLASS]

I've just heard the CQC (Care Quality Commission) were allegedly tipped off THREE times last year about the abuse going on - yet did NOTHING about it.

Heads need to roll. I don't want to hear 'lessons have been learned' yet again.

Its time for robust action now.

 

[grober]

The huge dilemma this area presents is typified by "Southern Cross" a major provider of care for some 31,000 residents in the UK. Southern Cross has been in serious trouble for several months, and has already breached key conditions imposed by its bankers. It has blamed public spending cutbacks for reducing its earnings from local councils – a key source of revenue, along with rising rents and increased care costs. City analysts, though, say the company is paying the price for poor decisions taken when it was owned by a private equity company. Southern Cross was floated on the stock market in 2006 by private equity firm Blackstone. Southern Cross had enthusiastically followed a strategy of buying up nursing homes, then selling them onto landlords, and relying on affordable borrowing costs to pay its rents. This approach began to unravel in 2007, when the credit crunch struck said William Laing, health economist at Laing and Buisson.
So as usual a large UK business is in trouble because of greed. Some people will have made a lot of money over the years out of this situation which will undoubtedly rely on the moral blackmail of local authorities/central government to bail them out rather than see 31,000 infirm elderly people out on the streets.

 

[NOMONEYBUTAMERC]

Regarding staff levels . Old guidelines were Residential homes 1 waking night staff per 20 people dependent on assessed needs, and 1 member of staff to 10 people during the day dependent on assessed needs.

Care Homes with Nursing ~ RN's 24 hours per day, 1 carer per 10 people overnight and 1 carer per 5 people during the day dependent on assessed needs.

These are gudeiline only and skill mix has to be considered and most importantly the needs of people who use services e.g. if there are people needing turns overnight by 2 people then a further member of staff must be considered. Also dependent on needs more staff must be deployed at the busiest times e.g. mornings and evenings and lunchtimes.

Staffing changes all the time dependent on people's assessed needs and duty rotas must reflect the changes.

There are no current minimum guidelines to staffing therefore staffing levels need to match dependency levels.

Operations Manager for a local Care Provider gave me this information (also a former Regulation Inspector)

 

[Jukie]

A friend of mine has mentioned to me a few times that the Care home he works at, sometimes they are short staffed and at night there is 2 staff on for 36 residents (normally 3 staff), 2 staff seems to few, Imagine if there was 2 'incidents' then another 'incident' occurred!

Does any one know if there is a minimum number of residents per staff?

General staff motivation there at the moment is low as well.

He works nights and the care home is a private one.

There are no minimum staffing levels written down by the Dept of Health for care homes. Inspectors will look at various factors such as building layout, dependency levels and evidence that the provider is able to comply with the standards set down in the Health & Social Care Act 2008.

This comes from a current CQC inspector, who would advise any home she covers to have a minimum of three staff on duty at night in a home of that size.

 

[silver_star]

They would be better supervised in prison!!! Sickening really.

 

[Dr-Nab]

I've just heard the CQC (Care Quality Commission) were allegedly tipped off THREE times last year about the abuse going on - yet did NOTHING about it.

Heads need to roll. I don't want to hear 'lessons have been learned' yet again.

Its time for robust action now.

Yet all the CQC director for that area can say about it is that they're extremely sorry and it won't happen again...

If the CQC are supposed to oversee and enforce regulations and standards upon all care homes and they turn a blind eye to it who do you turn to in order to make sure the CQC do their jobs properly? After all they're part funded by the tax payer and only didn't get axed on grounds of impartiality.

If you think it's bad in the private sector, I know of state-run care homes that operate in very bad ways - try and complain about it nobody will do anything, it gets brushed under the mat for whatever reason.