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A new addition to quality monitoring? Development of a care home quality measure based on residents’ quality of life
- Author:
- UNIVERSITY OF KENT. Personal Social Services Research Unit
- Publisher:
- NIHR School for Social Care Research
- Publication year:
- 2015
- Pagination:
- 4
- Place of publication:
- London
Reports on a study to explore if professionals felt there was a need for a new care home quality measure based on residents’ social care-related quality of life, as measured by the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT). Consultations were carried out with local authorities, care home providers and interest groups and the care homes regulator through a workshop, interviews and online survey. Stakeholders were asked what they would like the measure to support, and issues and features of importance. Using the ASCOT care home’s toolkit as a starting point, a new draft toolkit was developed and then tested by a local authority quality monitoring team in two homes for older adults. Feedback from the monitoring team was positive, especially about the domains of quality of life and the focus on observing the lived experience of residents. Local authorities and social care professionals felt the ASCOT measure would be useful for quality assurance, and that it could also be used as a feedback tool to improve care practice in homes. However, local authorities said they would be reluctant to publish ASCOT care home ratings on the grounds that they would not have the resources to keep them up-to-date. The toolkit will be piloted and evaluated in SSCR-funded study, Measuring Outcomes of Care Homes (MOOCH). (Edited publisher abstract)
Using ASCOT to improve care practice
- Author:
- UNIVERSITY OF KENT. Personal Social Services Research Unit
- Publisher:
- NIHR School for Social Care Research
- Publication year:
- 2015
- Pagination:
- 3
- Place of publication:
- London
Reports on research to explore the use of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) to assess the social care-related quality of life (SCRQoL) of residents in care homes and to examine whether the information collected could be used to provide feedback to staff and managers in those homes in order to improve practice. The research team measured the SCRQoL of 58 residents in four homes for older adults through observations and SCRQoL interviews with residents, family members and staff. Using ASCOT data, which measures quality of life in eight domains, the research team provided staff and management with feedback on the areas where residents have a good quality of life and why, the impact of care and support delivered, and areas of improvement. Staff and managers said they were able to use this to make changes to practice that would hopefully improve residents’ lives. Despite some changes to practice being make, no direct improvements in SCRQoL were identified in the homes when ASCOT assessments were repeated three months after giving the feedback. Possible reasons for this were the natural decline in residents' health and that three months may not be enough for changes to have taken effect. The study concluded that there may be scope to use ASCOT as a tool to improve practice if the feedback relates directly to individual residents and can then be used to improve their care. (Edited publisher abstract)