Quality Matters

July has been a very important month for adult social care.

CQC published The state of adult social care services 2014 – 2017 report based on our initial programme of comprehensive inspections. Plus, along with many others, we helped to launch Quality matters, the commitment from across the adult social care sector to listen and respond to the voice of people using services, their families and carers and make quality care and support a reality for all.

The central message coming from these milestone events was that quality must be at the heart of adult social care, and that everyone has a role to play in making sure that quality matters and that adult social care services provide care we would all be happy to use.

At the Quality matters launch, we heard from people representing the views of people who use services, their families and carers, staff, providers, commissioners, and national organisations, about what quality in adult social care meant to them. Jo-Anne Wilson, Registered Manager of Galanos House - an outstanding care home – offered the staff voice and her words perfectly summed up how high-quality social care can change and enhance people’s lives. Here is a flavour of what Jo-Anne said:

"I caught site of Jane in reception, she had a spring in her step and a smile on her face. ‘Thank you, thank you’ she sang out… ’I have my mum back.’

"It was only a few weeks earlier that I had spent several hours with a tearful, tired and deflated Jane. Mum had been living alone at home, struggling with early stage dementia and failing eyesight. Her perception of danger reduced, she was regularly found by neighbours out on the street in her night clothes. Jane was tired from the nightly calls, never sleeping properly, just in case, tired of battling to get her mother assessed and funded, tired of juggling her family, work and mum, and tired of feeling guilty as she didn’t feel she was doing anything well.

"In social and nursing care we are in a privileged position, we come into contact with people at some of the most vulnerable times of their lives. We travel with them on some of the most difficult journeys they will have. By working in collaboration with colleagues in the health and social care sector, we can make a huge difference to people's lives, not only to those we care for directly but also their loved ones.”

You can read Jo-Anne’s whole speech here and I really encourage you to do so. They are words of wisdom indeed and I am very grateful to Jo-Anne that she has agreed we can share them.

The launch itself was an enjoyable event and you can hear highlights on the Quality matters launch special programme for Age Speaks on East London Radio.

But while the collaboration to create Quality matters was great and the enthusiasm at the launch was wonderful to see and hear, what really matters is what happens next. Providers and staff have an important part to play, so I do hope you will get involved and help to show that quality really does matter to us all and the variation we reported in The State of adult social care is tackled.