Inside My Business #6

Hi Reader

“

I take you behind the scenes of a real system, meeting, decision or process we use inside our company because I believe the best way to learn is to see how real businesses actually operate

— Ruth

Years ago, I swore I'd never be a Registered Manager again.

I'd had enough of CQC. Enough of the paperwork. Enough of feeling that so much of my time was going into proving we'd done the work rather than actually doing it.

And yet here I am...

Running my own care business...

Still the Registered Manager. 😂

The funny thing is, I haven't suddenly fallen in love with regulation.

I understand it. I can interpret it. I know how to make it work within our business, and I take it seriously.

But enjoy it?

No.

Over the years, I've realised I can respect regulation without pretending I love everything about it.

This Week's Lesson

There's a tension in social care that I don't think we talk about enough.

You can have people receiving care who are happy, safe and genuinely pleased with the service they're receiving, and still fall short from a regulatory perspective because something hasn't been evidenced properly.

That's frustrating.

There are moments when I catch myself thinking:

If the person receiving the care is safe, happy and getting the outcomes they want, how much does this particular box really matter?

Then you hear about what happens when things go badly wrong.

Poor care. Unsafe practice. People being exploited or neglected.

And I'm reminded exactly why those boxes exist.

That's the bit I keep coming back to.

Good intentions aren't enough

And even good outcomes aren't always enough on their own.

We need systems, checks and accountability because the people who use our services deserve protection that doesn't depend solely on whether a provider believes they're doing a good job.

That's why, inside our own business, we try not to treat regulation as something we suddenly need to think about when CQC comes knocking.

It's built into what we do.

Our audits, quality assurance meetings, supervisions, competency checks, care reviews, training records and the countless other checks happening across the business aren't there simply so that we can produce a folder when someone asks for evidence.

They're part of how we know that what we think is happening in the business is actually happening.

Does that mean I enjoy every form, audit or piece of documentation?

Absolutely not. 😂

But I've made my peace with regulation.

Not the comfortable kind where I've suddenly developed a passion for compliance folders. That's unlikely to happen any time soon.

More an acceptance that good care and good governance have to sit alongside each other.

The challenge is making sure we never become so focused on proving that we're delivering good care that we lose sight of actually delivering it.

And equally, never become so confident in the care we're delivering that we think we shouldn't have to prove it.

Three things I would suggest:

1. Don't separate delivering good care from evidencing it.

Build good documentation into everyday practice rather than trying to recreate the evidence afterwards.

2. Ask yourself whether your systems tell you what's really happening.

Audits, checks and reports shouldn't exist just because a regulator expects them. They should help you understand your own service and spot problems before someone else does.

3. Remember what sits behind the paperwork.

When the frustration creeps in, remember why the framework exists in the first place. You don't have to love every part of regulation to respect what it's there to protect.