Presentation from Lilias Gillies, speaking in the: Would greater customer involvment improve the qualtiy of older people's homes?' workshop at the Services for Later Life conference - July 2012. '

1. Experts by Experience
Helping the regulator to hear the
voice of users of Care Services

2. Experts by Experience
• Have had experience of the care services
• Either as carer or user
• Work with Care Quality Commission
Inspectors
• Supported by an organisation contracted by
CQC to provide and train experts – for older
people that is AgeUK

3. How experts work - 1
• Work in districts other than their own
• Work in inspections of care homes,
domiciliary care, hospitals
• Assist in developing methods for inspections

4. How experts work - 2
• In residential/nursing homes we talk with the
residents
• We talk with visitors
• We see around the home with the eyes of an
older person who may well in time be living in
a home
• We share lunch with the residents
• We observe activities

5. How experts work - 3
• With Domiciliary care inspections we phone a
selection of people who receive care from the
agency
• Difficult to inspect the work and not to invade
people’s privacy
• A sample of the agency’s clients are written to
and asked it they are willing to speak to an
expert
• A sample of those will be phoned

6. Value added by Experts
• Experts are speaking to the users of care more
as equals
• Experts look at care homes thinking would I
allow my mother to be here?
• Or would I like to be here myself?
• Experts allow the inspector more time to
examine records of care, of staffing, of
training practices

7. What more is needed?
• Local authorities all have their own means of
testing users’ views with questionnaires, lay
assessors, local experts, mystery shoppers, etc
• And we should all be seeing that our Local
Authority is doing that

8. • In my London Borough, Wandsworth, there
are approx 31,000 people over 65
• Approx 3000 are in touch with local social
services
• Approx 1000 are in residential/nursing homes
• I may well be one of those when I am older
• I want to make sure of dignity and comfort for
all users of care

9. Does Customer involvement help?
• Experts can help to improve standards but they are
only a small part of the system
• Commissioners can monitor standards ..... But they are
often constrained by funding shortfalls
• Local Authority social care commissioning is no longer
inspected
• Local Involvement Networks or Health Watch are
expected to be the monitors for the local population
but they too are constrained by minimal funding
• Everyone can help and there are many opportunities

10. Customer involvement does
make for improvement