Use and develop systems that promote communications Outcome 1 – Be able to address the range of communication requirements in own job role 1. 1 Effective communication in my role as Business Manager is important to the business as a whole to create confidence, professionalism and a common goal/service. My role is important as I communicate with staff, service users, their families and friends, as well as professional individuals such as GP’s, District Nurses and Social Workers.
I need to be able to communicate in a clear and concise manner at all levels to portray information and instructions timely and accurately. Communication links all working professionals together in order to deliver the best possible care to service users. 1. 2 Communication is as much through body language as well as through the written word. Promoting open and effective communication through body language can be through open gestures and acknowledgements such as eye contact with service users and staff as well as open, positive body position and not crossing arms or legs and creating a negative barrier.
The written word needs to be legible, clear and in plain English so that it is easily understandable to all. 1. 3 There are several barriers and challenges to communication and these differ when communicating with staff and service users. Service users may have impairments such as hearing or sight loss or may be suffering from memory problems that may feel frustrated, not included and isolated. So it is important to adapt the communication method accordingly through speed of speech, waiting for a response or prompting through open leading questions to ensure they are included.
When communicating with staff opens up a new range of barriers such a language, ethnical or religious backgrounds as well as varying ranges of academic levels. So I would need to ensure that I was using plain English and explaining any jargon as well as checking that they understood instruction. 1. 4 The strategy to overcome the barriers to communication would be never to treat any one individual the same and carry out a mental assessment in each case to ensure that I adapted the style accordingly.
I would need to consider the person’s mental capacity, ethnic or religious backgrounds and the environment in which I was communicating in. Assessing service users then I would be able to identify any barriers to communication that may have and then would be able to consider equipment/aids that may assist them to communicate easier such as hearing or speaking aids. 1. 5 Some of the factors to consider would be slowing down, repeating where necessary, using open inviting body language and always checking that I have heard correctly and that others have understood correctly.
Spending time to explain to individuals that have been identified as not being as academic as others to ensure I have met the needs of others. I would also need to assess the environment that I was communicating for example in the case of service users I would need to consider the amount of light and the temperature in the room, distractions, whether they were comfortable and needed refreshments. In regards to communicating with staff, I may use several different means such as email, text, memo or face to face after assessing on the urgency of circulating the information.
I would ensure that whichever method I choose that I would check with all concerned had digested and understood. Outcome 2 – Be able to improve communication systems and practices that support positive outcomes for individuals 2. 1 To monitor the effectiveness of communication I would need to assess and review practice. In relation to staff I would be monitoring their outcomes by supervisions, appraisals and spot checks to see how they were performing and if this was within current guidelines and practice. This would identify areas of concern or improvement and a plan can be established moving forward.
Service users would have regular reviews and plans set out for their care, such as their care and support plan which would be centred round the care they required in the way they wished it to be carried out. Service users would also be given opportunities to feed back with questionnaires and monitoring forms to how they rate the service. Communication sheets in the service user folders would be collected and reviewed to ensure staff were following the set plan and identify any issues or concerns that may have been raised.
I would ensure that all concerns and opinions were listened to, investigated and moved forward/resolved in order to gain the best from feedback and review and to encourage further communication from both staff and service users. 2. 2 Current methods of communication systems that are in use would be the service user files that have their care and support plan, communication sheets, electronic monitoring, complaints and compliments procedures, training and computer software in the office.
All methods are important in ensuring a constant level of service and as such training should be provided to all staff to the importance of reading care plans and how the accompanying paperwork works, why they need to be filled in correctly and then monitoring for compliance. Service users would need to be made aware of current policy and procedure, such as how to make a complaint if needed so that they feel that if something goes wrong, it can be discussed and a resolution made. . 3/2. 4 A shortcoming to communication between the office and the care workers is sending out their rota and communicating any changes in a timely manner, in order that the care worker would have the most up to date information to enable them to carry out their duties effectively. Sudden changes to a care workers rota such as a service user cancelling their visit, going into hospital/respite causes an issue in getting this information to them quickly.
Current practice would be to call the care worker(s) to let them know of the cancellation and how long the service user may have cancelled for and then rely on the care worker updating their own paper copy rota accordingly. As attending service users that have cancelled or that are not home is not cost or time effective. Revised communication practice would be in the form of recently introduced GPS tracking, using mobile phones that hold the care workers rota. This enables changes to be sent directly to the care workers phone concerned within 15 minutes and updates automatically.
Each care worker requires additional training in the use and features of the mobile phone and app to log in and out of clients as well as reading their rota. In additional new Co-ordinators and Field Care Supervisors would need the relevant training in order to monitor the care workers and deal with any issues that may arise. Outcome 3 – Be able to improve communication systems to support partnership working 3. 1 I use communication to promote partnership working when providing care packages that require medication to be assisted or administrated.
Due to local procedures with the local authority the District Nurses are responsible for assessing the service user’s mental capacity and dexterity to see if they require Care Workers to assist them with their medication requirements. On receiving a package from the local authority commissioning officer, I would contact the District Nurse according to GP surgery and request that they attend the service user to set up the medication record chart, which needs to be completely within 24 hours.
The procedure is there to ensure clear roles, responsibilities and accountability for the safe administration of medications. There is also an internally procedure that is used when I receive a live-in package enquiry from the local authority. I communicate with our Hersham live-in branch to source an appropriate live-in carer from their pool that closely matches the service user’s requirements, from the gender, the age or/and the abilities and social interaction.
I would then communicate with the appropriate Social Worker the details of our live-in carer and indicate a potential start date that we would be able to provide the live-in carer from. 3. 2 Partnership working needs to be beneficial and productive for all concerned and communication methods are essential in ensuring that information is shared in an effective manner. In the case of our local authority, we need to communicate with the District Nurses whom carry out initial medication assessments and set up appropriate assistance via care agencies.
Therefore when carrying accepting a care package I would need to call the District Nurses to arrange for them to go out within 24 hours of the package starting to fulfil this requirement. This type of assessment is on top of their normal everyday medical duties for service users. When requesting for them to carry out an assessment, I would call the appropriate GP surgery and speak to the District Nurses office and ask for them to attend at their earliest convenience, this is important to ensure that service users receive their medication correctly and any assistance they require.
This procedure means that several different professionals are involved in the assessment of service users as they would have already had a visit from a Social Worker to assess their needs and requirements and once care needs are established they could then require an assessment from a District Nurse and then an assessment by our own Field Care Supervisor, which may create a sense of duplicated work, long periods of questioning and may cause service users undue distress and confusion.
There is also the added cost involved with so many professionals attending to assess the same service user, which impacts the very decreasing social care budgets. 3. 3 I would propose that we could improve the assessment process for service users, by removing the District Nurse medication assessments and getting that process taken in house by the domiciliary care providers as part of their initial assessment and risk assessment process. Additional training would be required for Field Care Supervisors and this would enable them to assess mental capacity and medication requirements.
This would be more cost effective, timely and would safeguard the service user by ensuring all assessments are carried out quickly, effectively and in their interest. Outcome 4 – Be able to use systems for effective information management 4. 1 There are several legal and ethical tensions between maintaining and sharing information in social care due to increasing legislation, human rights and public concern over accountability. There are several different pieces of UK and European legislation that needs to be considered such as: Data Protection Act 1998 – which governs how data is gathered, processed, used and stored. • The Human Rights Act 1998 – which recognised the privacy of individuals, respect for their private and family lives as well as their privacy and confidentiality. • Freedom of Information Act 2000 – This encourages open and accountability of public bodies. • Public Interest Disclosure Act 1999 – which allows workers to whistle blow over concerns over crime, negligence, miscarriages of justice, dangers to health & safety and wrong doing.
The act also protects the worker against dismissal or victimisation. All care professionals have legal obligations to protect information available to them to protect the service user’s privacy and confidentiality. With the increasing number of private care providers and local authorities outsourcing their car provision there is sensitive information being shared between agencies and staff about the very increasing population that require care in their own homes.
With more and more elderly people staying longer in their own homes, instead of seeking care homes means that there is an increasing number of mental health, dementia and other issues surrounding the elderly in the community. This may make the service users prone to neglect, abuse and to be taken advantage of, so we have the responsibility to ensure that the information we hold about our service users is secure, relevant and only shared with those that require it.
There is also the ethical side due to the increasing number of stories that hit national headlines on abuse and neglect of those who were in need, and bringing those responsible to task. 4. 2/4. 3 Some of the essential features of information sharing agreements is how, when, why and what information is shared, stored and accessed. Sensitive personal information about our staff and service users need to be protected from unauthorised access, these are stored in the local office in a lockable cabinet and only relevant staff have access to this to update and maintain them.
All electronic information held on staff and service users is stored on secure databases on company networks that have the full internet firewall and security features so that only those with a username and password can access the information. A key element is that if information is needed to be shared between external agencies, such as service user and staff files with the local authority, training providers and the Care Quality Commission, that permission is sought from the concerned and this is recorded in writing and signed.
The information shared needs to be informative, relevant and up to date in order to enable the care provision to be delivered successfully and that office staff and carers have the right information about a service user to answer any query and know what is required and what assistance the service user requires. Staff members also need to be able to access policies and procedures, and these are located in the office for ease of reference. Some of the policies that staff may need to see maybe the whistle blowing policy, safeguarding, confidentiality, reporting of accidents and incidents and the health and safety policies.
