Next week Parliament will announce the results of its spending review, which might prove to be the most significant for the NHS since the Conservatives came to power.

Chancellor George Osborne will unveil the budget for the nation’s health services, at a time when there is intense pressure on departments across the country, not least that of adult social care. No promise of funding or reform for the social care system has yet been made but the importance is understood.

Read more

• 19 November 2015

Did you know that next year, the Department of Health will require all nursing staff to revalidate their registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, every three years, in order for them to be able to practice?

For Absolute Healthcare, this is of paramount importance as our Director of Care, Louise Jeffrey, is a Registered Nurse.

All nursing staff regardless of their specific line of work will be required to do the following in order to maintain their registration: 450 practice hours, 35 hours of continuing professional development, 5 pieces of practice-related feedback, 5 written reflective accounts, 1 reflective discussion with an NMC registrant, a health and character declaration, evidence of professional indemnity insurance.

Read more

• 12 November 2015

Against the political backdrop of the Government reducing the available funding for quality home care provision in the community, we now learn that the Care Quality Commission expects care providers to pay increased fees of 300%.

The argument for this substantial increase is simply that the CQC claim their own costs are rising and are unsustainable under the current fee structure. They intend to achieve ‘full chargeable cost recovery’ by the end of the financial year 2019/20 – meaning large fee increases will happen immediately.

This news comes alongside an ever increasing demand for social care services, an acute funding gap between what local councils will pay for care, and numerous regulatory changes – the most notable being the imminent increase in the cost of living wage and companies now paying staff for their travel time. Combined, these two changes alone increase the cost of delivering care by 30% and if CQC charges are added, it is inevitable that care providers will be forced to make sizeable changes to their fee structure in order to continue providing a service of quality.

Read more

• 10 November 2015

At Absolute Healthcare, we pride ourselves on employing local people, to serve local people. We invest in their training and help them achieve their career goals, and in return we gain valued, loyal staff who stay with us and provide continuity of care to clients.

One of our long term carers, Hannah Willey, from Medstead, started with us as a trainee, and received extensive training and support which has helped her on her journey to University, towards her long term dream of entering into midwifery.

Hannah wanted to share her story, to help inspire other young people in the Alton area to take up caring as a rewarding career and to let clients know a little bit more about the wonderful people we have on our team!

Read more

• 04 November 2015