Outstanding compliance: best practices for safeguarding in residential care settings
Care should only be provided with the full consent of every individual, in line with the latest legislation and guidance. Following best practice ensures adequate safeguarding of all residents and service users; this includes following the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).
For meeting the compliance regulations for the CQC and other regulatory bodies, incident management and auditing tools are a key system to help manage, monitor, and report. Incident management reporting can be streamlined through the Blyssful care home management system, to ensure ongoing best practice.
What is safeguarding in care?
The Care Act 2014 represents the most significant reform of care and support in the UK, putting individuals and their carers in control of their treatment. The Act requires a local authority to promote wellbeing and protect individuals from abuse and neglect.
There are numerous types of abuse and neglect that the Act covers, including physical abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse, and neglect. Official reports demonstrate that individuals aged 85 and above are more likely to be the subject of a safeguarding enquiry as they are more at risk of one or more kinds of abuse or neglect.
Local authorities should be notified of any safeguarding concerns. To deal with these concerns, local authorities must establish a Safeguarding Adult Board (SAB) to coordinate a range of local organisations such as the local NHS integrated care board (ICB) and the police, to ensure effectiveness at protecting adults at risk.
The SAB produces an annual strategic plan and report to showcase what it has done to achieve its objectives, also allowing individuals to discover the consultation process to protect adults at risk.
Meeting MCA and DoLS for individuals who have reduced capacity
For individuals who are unable to give consent due to reduced capacity, the MCA and DoLS must be followed to ensure that residents and service users are effectively safeguarded, and decisions are made in their best interests. This includes taking into account the views of the individual’s Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA), who has been appointed to assist them.
For those who lack mental capacity to consent, the DoLS procedure protects the rights of those deprived of their liberty in a care home or hospital in England or Wales. DoLS ensures that an individual lacking mental capacity is only deprived of their liberty in circumstances where this is proven to be in their best interests and where there is no less restrictive alternative.
In 2019, The Mental Capacity (Amendment Bill) was approved by Parliament, which saw DoLS being replaced with the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS). The aim for LPS was the same as that of DoLS, to authorise care which results in deprivation of liberty and to safeguard those individuals who lack capacity to consent to those arrangements.
The LPS has now been halted, meaning that care staff are required to follow the MCA and DoLS. All staff must have appropriate training on the most up-to-date consent policy, safeguards, and wider MCA training.
The aim of the policy is to ensure that individuals in care are able to live with as much freedom as possible, in line with their assessed need for care, and to ensure that their independence is maximised within their capabilities. Staff will carry out their duty to provide optimum care that meets the needs of the individual and protects their human rights.
Meeting CQC Consent Regulations
In England, care must be managed in line with regulations from The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the regulator for health and social care services. The Social Care Act 2008, Regulations 2014: Regulation 11, ensures that all people using the service, and those lawfully acting on their behalf, have given consent before any care or treatment is provided.
Health and social care service providers must register with the CQC, who will check that providers comply with the CQC’s fundamental standards of care. As safeguarding is a legal requirement, regulatory bodies such as the CQC will carry out inspections to ensure these standards are met.
The CQC will check documented evidence during inspections, such as consent to care, treatment records, and assessments of mental capacity, DoLS forms, and appropriate policies and procedures. Should there be a breach of the consent regulations, the CQC has the ability to prosecute, following a warning notice or other regulatory action such as deregistering care providers who fail to meet appropriate standards.
Therefore, it is vital for care homes to be able to provide evidence of consent and safeguarding procedures. Evidencing and managing consent is made easy with Blyssful, the latest digital, residential care management software from Ablyss. This innovative software provides a full electronic history of consent, with information easily accessible for auditing purposes and CQC inspections.
The role of auditing tools in incident management
Blyssful also allows users to ensure correct safeguarding and compliance through incident management. All accidents and incidents must be recorded, and management informed with appropriate action taken, both to care for any individual who was involved in the incident and to ensure risks are reassessed and preventative measures put in place.
Incidents can be logged against each individual and attachments added, such as witness reports and additional information. Triggers can be set against individuals to monitor and prevent recurring incidents, particularly where causes are known or can be hypothesised. For example, if a resident has a fall and is on a medication known to cause such issues, this can be reviewed with their doctor and monitored for improvements or ongoing incidents.
This demonstrates the vital role of Blyssful auditing tools in incident management and personalised care. Comprehensive auditing tools, including a dashboard section on auditing DoLS, supports regular internal auditing. All accident and incident information can be viewed in an audit’s dashboard, and all data changes made by users are logged, presenting a transparent view of any updates made.
This allows trends and triggers to be identified through extended auditing tools; overviews and analysis report patterns or shortfalls in residents’ care, for preventative measures to be put into place ahead of any incidents, and for ongoing improvements to be made in line with safeguarding practices.
The Blyssful system allows residential care providers to remain compliant ahead of each regulatory inspection, be that held by the CQC in England, the CIW in Wales, the Care Inspectorate in Scotland, or the RQIA in Ireland.
Summary
Safeguarding is not just necessary from a regulatory standpoint, it is also vital to ensure that residents have full independence, knowledge, and control over their own care. This grants them autonomy and confidence, as well as the dignity and respect of agreeing to treatment before it is given to them.
The safeguarding of service users can be ensured by following MCA and DoLS and putting efficient incident management and auditing tools in place to guarantee that good practice and compliance is met.
Evidencing and managing consent is made easy with Blyssful residential care management software.
Utilising smart care management systems, such as Blyssful by Ablyss, optimises the possibilities of streamlining overall care and treatment plans by effectively reporting and monitoring incident management through innovative auditing tools.
If you would like to find out more about Blyssful residential care management software, gain valuable advice on safeguarding, or explore our auditing and incident management tools, please get in touch.
Article by Sally White
Ablyss Co Founder
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