HCPA-Annual-Review-2024-25

2024-25

Executive Summary

Hertfordshire Care Providers Association (HCPA) – Annual Impact & Strategic Outlook

As we reflect on the past year, HCPA continues to demonstrate its integral role in supporting the care sector through a strong membership foundation and collaborative partnerships across health and social care. Our mission as a central connector within the care ecosystem remains steadfast, and as we look toward 2025, we are committed to adapting and evolving to meet the sector’s changing and complex needs in a very competitive funding environment.

In 2024, we placed renewed focus on cultivating meaningful connections across the sector. Our revitalised networking events - both in-person and virtual – have been shaped by member feedback and designed to encourage collaboration, knowledge exchange, and pragmatic problem-solving.

Education remains a cornerstone of HCPA’s offer. We have redefined our approach to learning as a dynamic, real-world journey, integrating local case studies and sector insights to ensure relevance and accessibility. Over the past year, we trained 12,040 delegates through our core education programmes, and a further 1,017 through collaborations with system partners.

Our business support services have grown significantly. We now offer bespoke packages that help care providers assess operations, identify improvement areas and implement sustainable change. We do this through a range of one to one consultations, toolkits and service evaluations supporting managers to develop robust quality assurance and governance systems to facilitate continual quality improvement.

Our Provider Hub has remained a vital touchpoint, handling 23,389 enquiries across a spectrum of needs. Notably, enquiries from homecare providers more than doubled those from residential, nursing, or supported living services - highlighting a trend we continue to monitor and address.

We’ve also expanded support for the care workforce through the Care Professional Academy. This investment has streamlined access, incentivised participation, and extended our reach beyond Hertfordshire. Currently, over 14,000 care professionals benefit from the Academy, and 402 providers actively use the Provider Portal for compliance and workforce development. Providers with their own LMS systems continue to leverage Academy rewards, discounts, and training passports to retain and engage staff.

Addressing recruitment challenges, particularly acute due to our proximity to London, has been a key priority as always. We’ve strengthened recruitment services, worked with partners around international recruitment best practice and aligned these with education strategies, empowering providers to build and retain strong, competent teams.

This report outlines not only our achievements but our strategic direction. It affirms HCPA’s unwavering commitment to listening, adapting, and leading with our members to ensure a resilient, responsive, and futureready care sector.

Sharon Davies OBE Chief Executive Officer | HCPA

Some of the highlights we are proud of which show our commitment to making a difference to the sector include:

Mandatory Funding of £97,070 was disbursed for 3,105 participants to attend 1,002 courses over a 12-month period. This equates to an average cost of £26.09 per learner.

Education: in total we have trained 12,040 delegates, in addition to hosting and facilitating training with system partners to 1,017 delegates.

Within Oliver McGowan Education, 2,136 health and care professionals have undertaken Tier 1 training in the year. 5,455 health and care professionals have undertaken Tier 2 training in the year.

Executive Summary

Hertfordshire Care Providers Association (HCPA) – Annual Impact & Strategic Outlook

Skills Training and Needs Analysis Surveys (STAN) has seen take up from 105 care sites who have actively engaged with the STAN+ service, with 87 completed within the year, and 18 in progress.

We distributed 132 e-newsletters and successfully supported 23,389 enquiries addressing a wide range of support needs and complex questions.

38 events delivered: 2,529 delegates with an average cost per delegate of £12.50.

The Hertfordshire Care Awards saw 366 guests gather together to celebrate the best of the best in care in Hertfordshire. The Hertfordshire Care Awards is unfunded and produced via sponsorships from private companies sponsoring each category.

Prevention and Enablement Project created 155 new champions trained in Enabling and Mobility, Posture and Enabling, Falls and Frailty, and Engagement. 100 new staff completed our introduction to prevention and enablement training. 32 partners completed CPD sessions for consistency in enabling approaches. 60 new exercise instructors were signed off across Chair Based Strength and Balance. 56 organisations completed our new OT led course in Bed Care Prevention and Contractures. We held 140 Targeted Support meetings help to complete the Framework and build providers internal Prevention and Enablement Team.

54 lifting cushions are now well embedded into care homes and home care providers across Hertfordshire.

Data protection - 78.9% of residential care services and 57.5% of home care providers have achieved compliance or are approaching standards.

We supported 86% of Care Providers in Herts and West Essex in using a Digital Social Care Record.

Our Delegated Healthcare Tasks Survey received over 300 responses, providing substantial data on current practices and perceptions regarding delegated healthcare tasks, and we are now running a project working with 5 Quantum Homes to pilot the role of Delegated Healthcare Activity Governance Leads.

Impartial Feedback Service (IFS) – 164 services engaged; 74% completed to the 40% return rate required.

Business Continuity Planning - 70 services engaged with support and 63% completed.

In our work to support providers working with agencies - 24 agencies have successfully achieved/retained the Charter of Excellence Mark during 2024/25.

A total of 99 services have engaged with the Culture Surveys during 2024-25 with 75% achieving the 80% return rate required.

Supporting HCC Monitoring Teams, we launched the Inspection and Monitoring Support Service (IMS) with the aim to provide adult social care providers (older people and adult disability services) with tools, resources and 1:1 support to ensure appropriate pre and post-inspection and monitoring support is provided to adult social care providers in Hertfordshire.

HCPA Business Development Coaches have designed an array of tools providing a structured approach to the review and support sessions with providers, 70 providers have accessed the service during the reporting period.

Herts Good Care Recruitment Service - 271 new staff have been recruited into the sector by the service this year. Added to previous years’ activity, the project has now recruited over 3,500 care staff into the sector.

80 delegates have completed Succession Planning training - HCPA developed two stages focusing on aspiring leaders: growing talent to enable care providers to feel confident that they have a succession plan, and current leaders: developing continuing professional development, aimed at retaining good leaders within their roles. All other leadership education is funded via the DHSC and not detailed in this report.

14,000 Care Professionals are currently benefitting from the Care Professional Academy across Hertfordshire with 402 Providers using the Provider Portal in their day-to-day business for compliance and governance; other providers who have an LMS in place are promoting the rewards and discounts along with the training passport to their workforce.

AT GLANCE SUMMARY

TOTAL number of members

769 Events

2,529 delegates attended

38 events

TOTAL number of delegates trained by HCPA:

12,142 Plus: 3,105 via our quality assured network The Care Professional Academy

23,359

14,000+ care staff are Academy members Digital Care Plans

86% of providers supported in Herts to transfer

Data Security & Protection

Toolkit

1,611 providers supported

Herts

Good Care

Recruitment

271 new staff into the sector this year

155 new champions trained Lifting Cushion project impact: 20% reduction in falls leading to hospital admission

Impartial

Assessor

1,468 assessments made across 3 hospital sites

Business Development

Support

169 providers engaged in continual quality improvement Survey Services supporting Continual Quality Improvement

368 providers utilising the HCPA survey services

HCPA MEMBERSHIP & FACILITIES

Membership for 24/25

“HCPA Membership is vital for us, I don’t know how you can be a provider in Herts and not be a member. You share so much valuable information and offer such a wide variety of training that we couldn’t be without it.“

HCPA Membership Offer

Supporting adult social care providers for over 12 years, the HCPA Membership offers invaluable services to the sector in Hertfordshire that are the envy of other areas.

HCPA staff provide:

In-depth sector knowledge. Experience and expertise.

Commitment to the HCPA quality raising mission.

A service that goes above and beyond our education facilities to provide learners with an excellent training experience both face-to-face and virtual.

HCPA MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS TO THE SECTOR

HCPA Members by Service Type

HCPA MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS TO THE SECTOR MEMBERSHIP STATUS

Associate

Standard

Silver Gold

We’ve been a member of HCPA since we started the business 7 years ago and will continue to do so going forward, due to the fantastic offerings that they provide. The HCPA team are always friendly and willing to help. Their training sessions and events are well organised, and they listen to and incorporate any feedback to strive to provide the best resources. Well, done to the whole team.

MANDATORY FUNDING ANALYSIS 2024/25

Summary

The Mandatory Funding allows care providers to claim a financial contribution to training courses carried out at their own site for specific topics. Training must be delivered by an HCPA quality assured training provider. 5,158 participants attended 1,250 courses during the year.

Claimants

85 different sites claimed funding during the year. 37% of the funding was paid to Quantum Care.

Places by Course Subject

Long Term Conditions Including...

Basic Life Support & First Aid

Safeguarding & Protection

Assisting in Moving People Fire Safety

Health & Safety Awareness

Mental Capacity Act & Safeguards

Medication Management

Moving & Handling Objects Positive

Courses

15 different course subjects were claimed for, however 62% of the participants attended these courses on the following subjects:

Long Term Conditions including Dementia, Neurological conditions, Autism, Mental Health and Learning Disabilities.

Basic Life Support and First Aid.

Safeguarding & Protection of Adults at Risk.

Assisting in moving people.

Training Supplier

Training for the 1,250 courses claimed was carried out by 19 different internal and external approved training providers. The top 10 providers in terms of courses provided were…

MANDATORY FUNDING (CONT.)

Courses by Length and Training Provider Category

44% of all training funded was for a full day’s training and 81% was carried out by internal trainers.

Each course claimed for had an average of 4.1 participants. Where fewer courses were held the average participant levels increased.

EDUCATION

All training

In the 2024/25 period, HCPA continued its collaboration with Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) to enhance the skills and knowledge of the adult social care workforce. This ongoing partnership focused on providing highquality training and development opportunities to ensure that care professionals are well-equipped to deliver outstanding care and support to individuals in need.

Additionally, acting on behalf of the Hertfordshire & West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB), HCPA served as the official delivery partner for the rollout of the Oliver McGowan Training in Learning Disabilities & Autism. This specialised training programme, designed for healthcare professionals, aims to improve understanding and awareness of the needs of individuals with learning disabilities and autism. By implementing this training, HCPA contributed to the development of a more inclusive and knowledgeable healthcare workforce, ensuring that professionals are better prepared to provide appropriate, person-centred care.

Furthermore, HCPA worked in partnership with Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) to deliver Mental Health education, equipping the social care workforce with the necessary skills and knowledge to support individuals experiencing mental health challenges. In addition, we hosted and facilitated education from system partners, ensuring a collaborative and integrated approach to workforce development across the health and social care sector.

Our Education Offer:

Care

Advance Care Planning

Basic Health Observation & Deterioration

Basic Life Support

Bipolar Awareness

Care Certificate/ Care Induction

Care Planning

Catheter & Stoma Care Awareness

CPD for Nurses

Cultural Awareness

Dementia: Person-centred Support Care Strategies

Dementia: Planning Risk-positive Care

Depression Awareness Diabetes Awareness

Dual Diagnosis and Substance Misuse Awareness

Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW)

End of Life Communication

First Aid at Work (FAW) + Requalification

Health & Safety and Fire Awareness

Introduction to Positive Behaviour Support

Introduction to Prevalence and Types of Dementia

Mental Health Awareness

Moving & Assisting

Nutrition & Hydration

Oliver McGowan

Record Keeping & Writing

Accurate Records

Reflective Practice for Mental Health Service Providers

Safe Medication Principles

Safeguarding & Capacity

Schizophrenia Awareness

Self-harm & Suicidal Ideation & Intent

EDUCATION (CONT.)

Care Management

Advocacy at the Heart of Person-centred Care: Development for Leaders

Auditing & Quality in Adult Care Settings

Care Induction: Quality Onboarding Guidance for Managers

Creating a Supportive Dementia Care Culture - Key Information for Managers

Leadership Skills

Engaging and Retaining a Competent Workforce: Strategies for Leaders

From Vision to BehavioursLeading Cultural Transformation

Managing conflict: Leading through collaboration

Managing People: Proactively Raising Productivity through Performance Management

Dementia Best Practice

End of Life - Manager Responsibilities & Governance

Governance: A guide to ensure your Care service is CARING

Governance: A guide to ensure your Care service is EFFECTIVE

Governance: A guide to ensure your Care service is RESPONSIVE

Governance: A guide to ensure your Care service is SAFE

Governance: A guide to ensure your Care service is WELL-LED

Health & Safety Governance

Mental Capacity Manager Responsibilities

Supporting Relationships: Relationship & Sexuality Awareness for Managers

Mastering Complaints: Empowering Leaders for Success

Navigating Difficult Conversations: Effective Communication Strategies for Leaders

Recruitment with Purpose: Building a Values-Based Workforce

Champions & Champion Revalidation

Adult Disability Positive Behaviour Support

Care Culture

Care Home Medication

Dementia

Trainer Skills & Revalidations

Care Induction

Care Planning

Infection Prevention & Control

Learning Disability Positive Behaviour Support

Digital & Data

Enabling & Mobility

Enabling & Posture

Engagement

Falls & Frailty

Moving & Assisting

Safe Medication Principles

Safeguarding & Capacity

Trainer CPD and Networking

Supervision & Appraisal

Team Leading: Navigating Leadership Styles for Organisational Success

Time Management for Leaders: Applying the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Homecare Medication

Infection Prevention & Control

Mental Capacity

Mental Health Service

Safeguarding

EDUCATION (CONT.)

Qualifications

Offered at rates providers are able to claim back through SfC WDF/ LDSS

Level 2 Diploma in Care

Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care

Level 4 Certificate in the Principles of Leadership & Management in Adult Care

These fully funded (or low cost) courses allow providers to send eligible members of staff on training focussing on a range of topics. The course length varies depending on the topic from half a day to six days. This supports our smaller care providers to access training for staff, and larger organisations can utilise the specialist training for specific staff. The topics chosen are as a result of HCPA intelligence collected across the previous funding year via a range of information including surveys, topics arising via feedback from Monitoring Officers and the Safety and Quality Implementation Group, direct feedback from members and the Impartial Feedback Service/ Skills Training and Needs Audit (STAN+).

Our education is aimed at providing a multitude of skills, with some designed for specific care settings and more specialised roles. Whilst we sometimes look for local subject matter experts to bring this training to care staff in a way that is engaging and practical, most courses are delivered by HCPA’s own specialists.

EDUCATION (CONT.)

Delivery Outputs:

Despite the ongoing inflationary pressures on the care sector, and the strained care workforce, we are very proud of the number of staff we have been able to support through the last year. Through the introduction of new education programmes, we have been able to engage providers in education despite workforce issues.

Although we have ongoing issues with cancellations due to various health outbreaks and staffing ratios, our course booking communications processes has enabled courses to remain highly attended by swiftly engaging with providers when spaces become available.

In total we have trained 12,040 delegates, in addition to hosting and facilitating training with system partners to 1,017 delegates.

Value for Money:

Some of the key highlights throughout the year have been:

Continued to increase output capacity through efficiencies and intelligence.

Expanded offer of topics.

Varied delivery offer, with online, face-to-face and hybrid.

EDUCATION (CONT.)

Key data on learners attending our education offer:

The chart below demonstrates the breakdown of the top 10 topics: Top 10 courses by attendees (Exc Oliver McGowan)

Basic Life Support

Depression Awareness

Team Leading: Navigating Leadership Styles

Bipolar Awareness

Supervision & Appraisal

Schizophrenia Awareness

Safeguarding & Capacity

Cultural Awareness

Care Certificate / Care Induction

Moving & Assisting

The chart below shows the number of learners attending multiple training courses within the year:

Number of courses attended

This is important as care professionals need to have knowledge on a wide range of subjects, and it’s great to see the number of people that are coming back for further education to increase their knowledge in diverse areas and increase their quality of their practice.

EDUCATION (CONT.)

Impact:

We are always looking to see the positive impact our education is having, including seeking the voice of learners.

Increase in knowledge

Across our education, delegates knowledge has increased by 56% from their starting point after attending the course.

It is important for all courses that we establish a learner’s starting point of pre-course knowledge so that we can see their ‘knowledge-growth’ based on the learning outcomes of the course. We can see a very positive trend across all subjects. We have noticed that some learners do score themselves higher in the pre-knowledge assessment than they in truth actually are, this is due to the ‘you don’t know what you don’t know until you have been on the course’ factor. We believe this may skew our measurements slightly. We continue to review this to give us a more accurate picture of true knowledge-growth.

EDUCATION (CONT.)

Learner feedback:

Below is a small selection of comments received by learners following their course. Care Certificate

Team Leading

I would like to commend our trainer. They were very approachable and knowledgeable. They delivered the course very clearly. Every class is very productive and informative. It’s very easy to understand especially for me who is new to the care industry.

I enjoyed the course. It was extremely enlightening and educating. I will be a better and a more meticulous, and person-centred carer for it.

Safeguarding & Capacity

I liked the way the course was delivered; it was interactive and involved lots of group questions & answers that make it very proactive. The content used in this course was very up to date as well.

The trainer was extremely knowledgeable, informative, confident and politically correct. I was very impressed with their presentation and how they kept everyone stimulated right until the very end of the course.

Trainer had a great level of knowledge around the topic and wider care sector. They made the course engaging and less stressful for people with it being a sensitive topic. I would highly recommend the course and cannot wait to have more training.

Learning Disabilities: Planning risk-positive care

Great tutor! They made the course very fun and enjoyable, got everyone involved and listened to all opinions and views. Really great course and am going to recommend to colleagues!

This is a very knowledgeable course, which should not only be taught to a newly appointed leader, but also as a refresher course to all leaders.

Governance: A guide to ensure your Care service is SAFE

Was helpful with the updates of what CQC are now looking for when doing inspections and whether we are checking we are doing this well.

I am working towards becoming a Registered Manager and am awaiting an interview from CQC. The training was helpful and I now feel ready for this interview.

Safe Medication Principles

This medication training should be made compulsory for every care provider. This course was an eye opener and the reason for importance of medication was emphasised.

Falls Prevention

The session was great and very interactive. It is always a good thing to learn something from a different perspective and the trainer really put everything in perspective. Thank you very much for imparting me with your knowledge on falls prevention.

Safeguarding Managers Responsibility

I raised a safeguarding yesterday itself, and it was that easy to take the decision after the course. Very interactive session- helped to seek more information and knowledge from other managers.

EDUCATION (CONT.)

Learner feedback (Cont.)

Below are a small selection of comments received by learners following their course...

First Aid at Work .

Trainer was brilliant. Really engaging, interactive, got everyone involved, tested knowledge as we went along, prompted us to think rather than just speaking at us and telling us the answers. Trainer was approachable and we were able to have meaningful discussions as a group as we went along. Amazing. Thank you!

Moving & Assisting.

Fabulous trainer, very kind and professional. Their method of training was easy to understand and apply. Practical pieces were thoroughly explained. Would love to attend more of their classes

As a Unit Manger, I love to attend training at HCPA. I have met a lot of people here today and the trainer was brilliant.

Care Planning.

Trainer delivered the training very well and made the subject very interesting to learn. I undoubtedly gained wealthy information and am looking forward to implementing the new changes.

Governance: A guide to ensure your Care service is RESPONSIVE.

It was a very useful training and with the current inspection trend, it was good to know what the expectation of CQC is of the providers.

Supervision & Appraisal.

I previously did a supervision course a while back with another provider and after today I feel cheated that I didn’t do this one before! It was a really good course, and the discussions were very beneficial to my line of work.

Chair Based Exercise Instructor.

It was a wonderful session with practical experience. Not one to forget in a hurry.

Great trainer, very knowledgeable and easy to listen to and work alongside with. Thank you. My confidence has grown and look forward to putting it into practice.

Day was informative and a great update of knowledge. Fantastic trainer and kept us entertained and motivated whilst gently encouraging everyone. Their depth of knowledge is also great not just a trainer reading from a slide.

Really easy to follow and very understanding. The lessons were really clear, and I felt that I could speak to the trainer at any time, and if I needed help, I would have help until I understood. The sessions were also fun and enjoyable.

EDUCATION (CONT.)

Oliver McGowan Training

Oliver

McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability &

Autism

Following the tragic death of Oliver McGowan in hospital, Oliver’s Campaign was born. The campaign is led by Oliver’s mother, Paula McGowan OBE, who believes that all health and social care staff need appropriate and meaningful training to help them to understand people who have a learning disability and autistic people.

The government subsequently published ‘Right to be heard’, and committed to developing a standardised training package which draws on existing best practice, and the expertise of people with a learning disability, autistic people, and subject matter experts.

HCPA supported the Hertfordshire & West Essex Health and Care System roll out the Oliver McGowan

Mandatory training. HCPA have an established training team with extensive experience working in care, and brought in experts with lived experience as co-trainers to support the roll out.

A Train the Trainer course was also available to support trainers in the system to cascade the training.

2,136 health and care professionals have undertaken Tier 1 training in the year.

5,455 health and care professionals have undertaken Tier 2 training in the year.

HCPA SERVICES

STAN+ (Skills Training & Needs Audit)

Maintaining staff skills and ensuring compliance with national standards is fundamental to delivering high-quality care, as outlined by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC highlights the necessity for staff to be competent, qualified, and appropriately trained to effectively meet the needs of individuals in care. Regular training and professional development not only enhance staff capabilities but also ensure adherence to key regulatory requirements, particularly within the CQC’s “Safe” and “Well-led” categories.

STAN+ serves as a vital tool for care providers in assessing and addressing staff training needs. This initiative ensures that care professionals are well-equipped to deliver high-quality, person-centred care while also offering valuable insights into staff confidence regarding their knowledge and skills. Additionally, the survey provides structured feedback on key operational areas within care organisations.

STAN+ supports care providers in demonstrating to commissioning and monitoring teams their commitment to identifying the training needs of their workforce. By using the survey, providers can evidence their dedication to ensuring staff have the necessary skills and knowledge to meet the diverse needs of individuals in their care.

Recognising the diverse requirements of care services, STAN+ has been further developed over the year and is now available in various service-specific versions to address the unique training needs of different care settings:

Mental Health Services

Adult Disability Services Older People Homecare Older People Care Home

STAN+ is designed to:

Identify training needs that align with the specific service type of care providers.

Ensure that individuals receiving care are supported by knowledgeable and well-trained staff.

Gather staff feedback on essential aspects of the business to drive improvement.

Provide detailed reports with clear recommendations for workforce development.

Direct care providers to relevant training and education opportunities available locally.

Guide providers to appropriate resources within the HCPA Resource Library.

Help care providers evidence their commitment to staff development to commissioning and monitoring teams.

By utilising the STAN+ survey, care providers can enhance staff competency, improve service quality, maintain compliance with national care standards, and effectively demonstrate their workforce development efforts to regulatory bodies.

105 care sites have actively engaged with the STAN+ service, with 87 completed within the year, and 18 in progress.

REFERRED BY TYPE

HCPA SERVICES

Provider Hub and Resource Library

The Provider Hub is the support service for all adult social care providers in Herts.

Telephone/email/web support. The urgent broadcast system for the adult social care sector in Hertfordshire.

What is covered under the Provider Hub?

Phone, email and web enquiries supported Monday to Friday 9am-5pm and bank holidays (Note: Service has been stood up 24/7 when needed for emergencies).

“Ask us anything” service. Every enquiry has been resolved to satisfaction with consistently excellent user feedback since 2020.

Newsletters of updates for providers.

Proactive surveys and feedback collection to be carried out on particular topics where support has been requested by partners.

Create and host sector-based provider forums.

Website of latest content and guidance from national and local sources, all easily accessible and up to date for providers, includes HCPA Resource Library - www.hcpa.info/resource-library.

Webinars on new guidance or support for providers, as many as are needed. These webinars will also facilitate HCC and other key partners to have access to our members, these will be put on via request and will be hosted by HCPA.

Over the past 12 months we have successfully supported 23,389 enquiries, addressing a wide range of support needs and complex questions. Notably, we observed that enquiries from homecare providers were more than double those from residential, nursing, or supported living services (Data Feb25).

Notable

/ frequent enquiries:

Business systems: “How do I find customers?”, “How do I pay my staff?”, “What is tax?”.

Supporting clients with different needs (e.g. racism, drug-abuse, multi-agency public protection arrangements).

Onboarding local authority/ICS frameworks.

Changes to regulatory and local authority systems.

Legal, cultural, and educational issues with overseas staff sponsorships.

We also receive numerous calls from individuals and organisations seeking guidance to navigate the system and identify the appropriate contacts for further discussion, or planning.

ASK us anything! We are your support service, here to answer your questions on all topics Adult Social Care related.

HCPA SERVICES

Provider Hub and Resource Library (Cont.)

Our CRM system allows us to track enquiries across our telephone system and support mailbox.

Note: The data above does not include calls and emails to Herts Good Care Recruitment team.

Teamwork: We are proud to have received recognition from the UKHSA for our role in supporting infection control, as well as from our local health protection team. Our collaborative webinars have reached hundreds of care providers, furthering our impact.

Note: Due to CRM update, figures are collated across differing sources to provide an approximate proportion.

HCPA SERVICES

Provider Hub and Resource Library (Cont.)

HCPA collates regular feedback received by providers who get support from the hub which demonstrates the impact the service has.

Support Services Directory: To enhance care quality and reduce hospital admissions, we continue to expand our database of care provider support services. This resource is available online and is complemented by a poster featuring critical information and a QR code for easy access.

Direct referrals: We coordinated 87 direct requests for provider support engagement. Approximately 15% of these requests originated from system partners, such as the local authority quality monitoring team. Our collaborative efforts included:

Working with HCPA Business Development experts on improvement and action planning.

Partnering with the HCPA Digital and Data team on secure transformation and IT initiatives.

Collaborating with the HCPA Education Team to ensure access to essential skills training.

Key Areas of Interest and Support:

Business continuity.

Digital transformation.

Quality care planning.

Funding and commissioning opportunities.

Skills and quality improvement.

Safeguarding.

Support for new or newly appointed managers.

Managing the closure or sale of care services, including retaining skilled staff.

Collaborating with system partners for optimal outcomes.

Looking Ahead to 2025: We aim to reintroduce face-to-face forums and to foster stronger connections with our members. We are eager to learn more about their needs and preferences for interacting with HCPA, for instance, our data indicates that smaller and newer providers have distinct needs compared to more established or commissioned providers. We are committed to supporting all our members in the most practical and effective ways possible.

Our members are the best of the best, and we are dedicated to helping them achieve excellence.

HCPA SERVICES

Provider Hub and Resource Library (Cont.)

HCPA collates regular feedback received by providers who get support from the hub which demonstrates the impact the service has:

Thanks for everything you are doing. We have come to rely upon the hub always knowing the answer.

It’s great to speak with Madi – she always has the most up to date information.

Great content - all really helpful stuff!

That is so helpful – thank you. We knew there was an answer but couldn’t find the right person to give us the answer. It was so good of the Hub team to reach out across the system to make sure we had the most up to date and accurate information.

Information about funding was new to me and it is motivating. That is great, thank you so much, I will forward onto my line manager. Thank you for your valuable time today. Much appreciated

Thank you for getting back to me about this!

Thank you for the update – we knew you would be trying to get this information for us… really appreciate your support.

Thank you for the immense support. It means a lot.

HCPA SERVICES

Provider Hub and Resource Library (Cont.)

Provider Forums:

HCPA host forums all year round. These are opportunities for seniors within care services to stay up to date with essential sector news and updates, provide insightful deep dives on timely topics, discuss challenges faced by care providers and suggest mitigation, and understand the education, development, and support services available from HCPA.

Providers must have a way to express their voices, to alert the system to their issues and risks, and these forums are an ideal opportunity to engage, network and discuss solutions with peers and experts.

In 2024-25 HCPA created and hosted: Homecare managers forums, Adults Disability Service forums, Older Persons services managers forums, Nursing dementia forums, Residential dementia forums.

HCPA SERVICES

Provider Hub and Resource Library (Cont.)

Webinars:

HCPA also host a variety of thematic and co-produced webinars, along with creation of resources and guidance.

HCPA SERVICES

Provider Hub and Resource Library (Cont.)

HCPA e-news: Reaching care providers and partners within the sector.

April 2024 to March 2025 HCPA sent 132 e-newsletters.

Most opened emails and clicked links concerned Leadership Burnout, Driving Lessons for International Recruits, Covid Campaign for Summer 2024, Resources for Running your Care Business and the Care Professional scholar programme.

HCPA Resource Library

What

is covered on the Resource

Library?

The Resource Library (formerly known as the Members Zone) is a platform where HCPA members can source key information across 12 different areas. Our page leads (alongside other trusted Hertfordshire partners) work on these pages to ensure information is continually updated and easy for providers to access and understand.

Across these 12 sections providers can access:

Previous webinar recordings and slides.

Information and links to the current government and local guidance.

Essential toolkits such as the care planning toolkit, Data Protection toolkit and more.

Key contacts for their area.

Useful information and links to external websites.

Educative flyers, posters and videos that can be shared with staff members.

Key updates which are now promoted via a pop-up alert box.

The below line graph shows the total overall number of views the resource Library has received each month. In total, from April 2024 - March 2025 it has had 17,500 views which is a 20% increase on the previous year. Overall Resource Library page views per month...

Resource Library overall views 23/24 compared to 24/25

As demonstrated by the above, viewership has increased throughout 24/25 but maintain peaks of interest in July, October and January.

HCPA SERVICES

Provider Hub and Resource Library (Cont.)

The below graph shows each Resource Library area and the views it has received each month.

Total views per area per month

Technology & Equipment

Staff Wellbeing (added end of 2024)

Safeguarding & Capacity

Running your care business

Regulations & Inspections

Medication IPC

Health & Wellbeing

Event resources (added 2024)

Care & support planning

Adult Disability & Mental Health

Members Zone

Key updates for the Resource Library in 24/25:

Care planning was renamed Care and Support Plan and now has all the details for care professionals to create a robust care and support plan.

Events resources re-added to the zone alongside prevention and enablement and staff wellbeing.

Search function added on each page - enhancements still to be made.

Full audit of each page with old content and links removed - continually in progress.

HCPA SERVICES

New Development - Support Services Directory

In December 2023 HCPA launched the new Support Services Directory; a one-stop shop for key contacts to access support services.

A searchable database was built and embedded into a webpage, meaning contacts can be kept up to date in real-time, and available around the clock.

To compliment this, posters have been created so that immediate contact details are on display, combined with a QR code linked to our directory. This mitigates the risk of old numbers being displayed on out-of-date posters.

At end March 2025 the directory had been searched over 800 times by care providers, which shows the demand for this directory.

The quick launch posters have been downloaded by over 100 care providers.

We have already surveyed our partners and the support services included in our database, asking for their input, and many have been incredibly helpful with updating the text and key information we display for them.

Work is underway to include live mapping, plus the inclusion of services relevant to community care (homecare, supported living, etc).

HCPA - EVENTS

Alongside the delivery of essential information shared at HCPA’s highly successful events, HCPA members also value the networking opportunities that the events provide. Many smaller organisations feedback that this networking is a lifeline and crucial for the organisation to develop, as it provides essential support.

In additon to the Network events which deliver essential information to providers, HCPA are also proud to boast a portfolio of highly successful, service specific manager forums, topic specific study sessions and webinars as well as hosting and delivering adhoc, information and time specific webinars on behalf of our system partners.

38+ Events Delivered 2,529 delegates Average cost per delegate = £12.50

HCPA Webinars, Forums and Events

Pre-procurement Market Engagement webinars

Service specific managers forums (x 6)

HCPA Provider Network Events x2

Manager Forum Homecare

Manager Forum OP

Tender Training

HCPA Network Event

Manager Forum Mental Health

Malnutrition for Older Person Services / Nutrition and Dehydration Homecare

Manager Forum ADS

Connected Lives Showcase (HCC booking)

Extra

Topic specific study sessions Care Awards

Delivery of a new Technology in Care Summit

Online Forum

Study Day F2F

Online Forum Online Forum

Study Day f2F Study Day F2F

Care: Utilising the LGBTQ+ Learning Framework for Enhanced Social Care

Dementia - Behaviour Support planning

Manager Forum Mental Health

Peninsula HR and Health and Safety Webinar

Manager Forum Older Persons

Respect Induction for Herts Care Managers

PAMMs Webinar (Day Ops)

Day f2F

HCPA - EVENTS

Healthy Lifestyles for LD

and Enablement

Tender Training

HCPA Network Event

NHS Provider Engagement

Fire Safety Residential

Tender Training

HPFT Contracts

Fire Safety Homecare

Hertfordshire Care Awards

HCC Supported Living Framework Launch Webinar

NHS / J&G Care Home Staff Training

Tender Training - Echo

Manager Forum ADS

Fire Safety Homecare

Fire Safety Residential

East of England Technology in Care Event Study Day F2F

Day F2F

Number of attendees by event type

HCPA - EVENTS

What a great event. I’ve been to plenty of Alzheimer’s/dementia related conferences and forums, and none were as clear or engaging as this one yesterday, really well done. Everyone seemed to show up ready to learn and improve the way they do care, and people were ready to talk business and collaborate on doing so, it was excellent.

Thanks again

Daniel Brown, Co-Founder, Simon Care Management

HCPA - EVENTS

The Hertfordshire Care Awards

The 2024 Hertfordshire Care Awards took place at Willows Farm in St. Albans in the style of the roaring twenties. The event saw 366 guests gather together to celebrate the best of the best in care in Hertfordshire. Awards were presented to newcomers, rising stars, inspiring leaders and whole companies for their achievements in 2024. The Hertfordshire Care Awards is unfunded, and produced via sponsorships from private companies sponsoring each category.

With nine categories to choose from, care providers are asked to answer a set of criteria, each criterion is designed to ensure that providers look at their organisation in detail and asks questions that focus on processes, innovation, best practice and culture. The categories are then judged by professionals in their fields working within the care sector, from partners such as the NHS and Local Authority.

HCPA SERVICES

Prevention and Enablement Service

The Prevention and Enablement Team strives to change the culture of care to an enabling one, in order to improve the health and wellbeing of the individuals. We aim to support care providers to be proactive about people’s care by getting people moving more, sitting less, and improving their quality of life.

Our aims...

To foster a culture of prevention and enablement (P&E) for individuals at risk of frailty, hospital admissions, and loss of independence.

To support care providers to be proactive about people’s care by getting people moving more, sitting less, and improving their overall quality of life.

Using HCPA resources, support to ensure proactive management of falls, which aligns with an enabling ethos to prevent further deterioration.

This holistic approach aligns with the local Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

For providers to build their internal P&E Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) and are using the P&E framework. By embedding an enabling approach, providers will have a proactive management of falls, which include therapeutic techniques from HCPA training, ensuring that providers have the knowledge and skills within their workforce to improve individuals’ quality of life.

Highlights of the last year:

155 new champions trained in Enabling and Mobility, Posture and Enabling and Falls and Frailty and Engagement

100 new staff completed our introduction to Prevention and Enablement

32 Partners completed CPD sessions for consistency in enabling approaches

60 new exercise instructors across Chair Based Strength and Balance

56 organisations completed our new OT led course in Bed Care Prevention and Contractures

140 Targeted Support meetings to help complete the Framework and build their internal Prevention and Enablement Team

Delivered a Study Session for Managers in Care Homes and Homecare which focused on the ethos of Prevention & Enablement in Older Persons settings for 70 managers

180 leaders attending webinars in

Engagement support & goal setting - Strategies for effective activities planning

Bed Prevention and Supportive Equipment for Care Homes

Building your Prevention and Enablement Team

Management of a Fall and Post Monitoring Best Practice

HCPA SERVICES

Prevention and Enablement Service

Impact

“Our team has embedded new ways of working following our education and support. I believe it’s really important to train and coach the team with all knowledge I had learnt throughout the course. Not only does it support the residents, it supports the staff too and protects their well-being.”

“Training like this often enhances person-centred approaches in several ways, 1. Greater focus on individual needs, 2. Empowerment and independence, 3. Stronger relationships, and also give the resident more options of what types of activities they may like to participate.”

“I have noticed that our approach is more person centred as the team discusses how the residents would be more comfortable, having new staff members and training them from the beginning with the new techniques, makes it easier for everyone.”

“I feel we have gone some way to change the culture and help staff understand that residents can still live their lives, we do not have to wrap people in cotton wool! We have several ladies that now use the gardens freely, a resident uses his mobility scooter within the home, and those who are cared for in bed, for whatever reason, are experiencing more competent and safe repositioning.”

Feeback...

This course was really an eye opener. I got a lot of questions answered where I needed help.

Falls & Frailty CHAMPION

Lots of really useful information to take back and refresh our current practices. Will definitely make use of some of the outcome tools and also review our training to incorporate new techniques.

Enabling & Mobility CHAMPION

More focus on hands on experience of encouraging right mobility practices with the help of real-life scenarios. And test the knowledge based on how to implement the techniques and practices that we learned from the training on real life scenarios rather than doing presentation.

Enabling & Mobility CHAMPION

This is one of the best courses I’ve attended. The tutor delivery was excellent and interaction was very useful.

Prevention & Enablement Introduction

Suzy is a brilliant trainer. Full of energy. Very practical and extremely knowledgeable. Right through the beginning the course is very exciting and moving. We have very diverse group of professionals they all enjoyed the course equally well.

Strength & Balance in Care

HCPA SERVICES

Prevention and Enablement Service (Cont.)

Lifting Devices Implemented to Care Homes

54 lifting cushions are now well embedded into care homes and home care providers across Hertfordshire. There are 6 Elk cushions, and 48 Camel cushions placed in services across Hertfordshire with 23 being in East & North Herts and 31 in South & West Herts.

Across 2024, HCPA worked in partnership with Winncare and the Care Providers to maintain the cushions and ensure they were being utilised effectively. Additional training was offered to upskill services that needed it, and services were carried out for a number of cushions.

Impact:

20% reduction in falls leading to 999 requests

13% reduction in falls leading to hospital admissions

Cushion used 500 times since implementation

Homecare

We recently began working closely with Abbots Care, a homecare provider, to monitor the use and the benefits of the cushions in a homecare set up.

The feedback has been positive, and the provider has used the Early Intervention Vehicle more frequently since having the cushion in place and following the post falls pathway.

Impact of Cushions

Paramedics initially advised 4 to 6 hours waiting time for a head injury, we were concerned with the potential of internal bleeding. Being on the floor would have had negative impact on resident’s health and mental distress while they are on the floor, which is a hard surface. We explained to the paramedics about the cushion, and they advised we should lift.

Paramedics have re assessed each time and later they decided not for hospital admission as the resident felt better. This may have not been the case if she was on the floor for up to 6 hours and possibly ended up in an admission.

Post Falls Pathway

HCPA has been working alongside Herts and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) to rewrite the Hertfordshire Post Falls Pathway for Care Homes. This has now been loaded onto the ICB website, and all related forms have been updated to include the latest guidance and current pathways, such as the:

‘Acute Management by Non-Clinician in the Community of Skin Tears (for Adults)’ pathway,

‘Management of a long lie post fall’ pathway

‘Management of a fall where the person is on anticoagulants and unlikely to be suitable for a CT as not a candidate for neurosurgery’ pathway.

HCPA SERVICES

Care Home Impartial Assessor Service

This service aims to assess an individual as they move into or return from hospital to a care home. It is done to avoid care staff travelling to do assessments at the hospital and is therefore done on behalf of the care home. The aim is to reduce the length of stay in an acute setting. The method of assessment is agreed with the home and maybe a written document or information shared via the telephone with a short written confirmation of the information discussed.

The assessments take information from a range of sources including existing medical, nursing and social work assessments and records. The impartial assessor will follow up any successful discharge with a phone call 3 working days after the discharge to understand how the discharge went and whether there is any learning that can be taken into the service or for wider discharges.

How accessible is the IA service to you?

Extremely Accessible – Always helpful

Accessible – Very beneficial in terms of time management

Extremely Accessible – Excellent service

Accessible – Good working relationship

Has the IA service been a benefit to you over the last year?

Extremely helpful, responds to requests quickly.

Lister Hospital assessors are very approachable and helpful. Always clear about what they can and cannot do and support us in getting the information we need.

Brilliant service, supportive, honest and helpful.

We have two Impartial Assessors who are very informative and helpful. We have a very good working relationship.

It is a fantastic service that has proved useful in slowing down discharges where people may not actually be medically optimised. They give us the information that we want about the person rather than basic information from ward.

A very useful service which supports us with hospital discharges and gives us good clear valuable information we require to support this.

Both Belinda and Laura are great, professional, supportive and overall, a great support to us a home.

I am happy with the service we are receiving and will be happy to support the team in any way we can.

Excellent service.

How could the service be improved moving forward?

There has already been improvement around getting information on Mental Health.

We have done face to face meetings with our IA in the past which was nice.

7 day a week service would be good to facilitate weekend discharges/admissions. There is often no one at weekends to do an assessment but I would be quite happy to review one at home.

Currently I don’t see room for improvement, the service is very supportive.

Believe the service works well.

Happy with what is already in place at present do not think any improvements can be made For our home, no improvement needed.

HCPA SERVICES

Care Home Impartial Assessor Service (Cont.)

Will you continue to use the service?

92% of care homes who responded confirmed that they would continue to use the Impartial Assessor service. 8% declined to use the service; however, it is worth noting that by their own admission, they have no need to use the Impartial Assessor service.

Accessibility of Impartial Assessor Service

61% of care homes reported that the service was extremely accessible, 31% reported the service to be accessible. 8% recorded the service as inaccessible which amounted to 1 service provider that hasn’t used the service, nor has any need to use the service by their own admission.

Accessiblity of Impartial Assessor Service

Average number of assessments compared to Target across whole service

Number of assessments completed that led directly to a hospital discharge in a calendar month

Average of 81% , which is above target. Worth noting PAH and Lister is above 80% (PAH 81% and Lister 84%) Watford 78% . One of the main reasons for lower discharge rates at Watford appears to be patients patients becoming medically unwell after the assessment is completed and prior to discharge taking place.

HCPA SERVICES

Care Home Impartial Assessor Service (Cont.)

Comparison by Hospital

Lister Hospital saw a decrease to 731 assessments completed, down 22% from 892 . This decrease was due to the transfer of care team’s change in process, passing responsibility to the wards to handover to care homes. It is worth noting that for a ward handover, the IA will still review the notes and facilitate information between the care homes and the wards.

Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) saw a decrease to 332 assessments completed, a 33% decrease from 501 assessments. This decrease was due to the transfer of care team’s change in process for Hertfordshire patients, passing responsibility to the wards to handover to care homes. It is worth noting that for a ward handover, the IA will still review the notes and facilitate information between the care homes and the wards. Whilst the number of physical assessments as decreased, the IA at PAH will provide regular updates to providers to enable a swift discharge as soon as they become medically optimised.

HCPA SERVICES

Care Home Impartial Assessor Service (Cont.)

Comparison by Hospital (Cont.)

Watford General Hospital saw an increase to 405 assessments completed in 2024 up 1% from 401 assessments in 2023.

Assessments completed vs Referrals received 2023/2024 Watford General Hospital

Assessment Sourcing

Since April 2024, the Impartial Assessors in Lister and Watford have sourced and completed 300 assessments using the care home list or cared for section of the electronic patient records within the respective hospitals. For PAH a cared for or care home list is not available to the impartial assessor; therefore, all referrals are received via wards, providers or discharge teams.

At Lister Hospital, 10 assessments were sourced and completed via A&E sweeps for admission prevention into an acute bed, and at Watford, 2 assessments were sourced via A&E sweeps.

Each site has a watchlist of patients either from or being discharged to care homes. These patients are not yet medically optimised or been officially referred, however, the IAs will monitor the progress to enable faster discharges and to support alongside the transfer of care teams with placement sourcing.

HCPA SERVICES

DSPT (Data Security & Protection Toolkit Project) Local & Regional Support

HCPA has successfully completed its fourth year of delivery for the national Better Security Better Care programme.

The programme supports registered care providers to assert compliance with information governance standards via completion of the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT).

DSPT is a nationally recognised annual online self-assessment tool that helps care providers to understand the standards required for data protection and information governance across the sector.

DSPT is now written into the CQC’s Assessment Framework, and we have evidence that inspectors are asking providers whether they have a current DSPT during inspections around Governance within Well-Led. This is a huge change from previous years and allows us to specifically link DSPT with providers’ inspections during our conversations and presentations.

Local support

The number of sites the team is supporting in Hertfordshire and Essex has increased by 111 in the last year, going from 1,500 to 1,611

78.9% of residential care services and 57.5% of homecare providers have achieved compliance or are approaching standards. This proportion is similar to the regional and national figures.

Home Care - Herts & Essex Residential - Herts & Essex

NHSmail webinars have proved popular. Whilst there is no funding for NHSmail support, it does highlight the requirement for DSPT to be completed prior to applying for NHSmail, so by encouraging NHSmail, we are increasing compliance with DSPT.

Digital & Data Champions course was launched in November; 3 courses have taken place with 36 attendees. Sessions have seen a lot of lively discussion and have been a really good chance to network, swap ideas and discuss difficult or complex situations. Feedback has been good, and a further course has been scheduled for May.

Local Support 25/26

Programme funding has been extended from 31/03/25 to 30/09/25, giving an additional 6 months. It is hoped that the benefits of Local Support Organisations (LSOs) will secure further funding from September, but we must wait and see.

We will focus on those whose DSPT compliance has now expired, these should be quick wins, however, changes in management often make this challenging. We will also target Homecare and areas where there is lower compliance generally.

We will continue to attend partner events/forums (Local Authority, Skills for Care, Essex Care Associations etc) to continue to get the word out there in as many ways as possible and continue with support sessions in varying forms.

HCPA SERVICES

DSPT (Data Security & Protection Toolkit Project) Local & Regional Support

Feedback from care providers supported to register, assert compliance, train their staff and then publish the necessary legal document (DSPT):

Thank you so much for this morning. Definitely got a better picture.

The training was very informative and quite an eye opener – it certainly gets you thinking. It’s amazing the lengths someone will go to in order to access your personal information.

Thank you so much for the training. I found it so helpful, interactive and with great presentation.

Thank you taking the time to explain the process to me, very much appreciated.”

Thank you very much for your support, really appreciated.

HCPA SERVICES

DSPT

(Data Security & Protection Toolkit Project) Local & Regional Support

Regional support

The programme has been an unprecedented success, achieving all KPIs and milestones for progress. The compliance position for East of England region is only slightly behind the overall national performance.

Compliance - March 25

The Regional Coordinator holds monthly meetings with each local support organisation, taking note of issues, risks and suggestions which are discussed with the national programme team, particularly around NHSmail provider support, which is currently unfunded; however, all LSOs across the region are finding providers are turning to them when there is nowhere else to turn.

Through regional funding, this year we held our first Technology in Care Summit which received fantastic feedback. T he event was a great success, with an array of speakers which were of real interest to providers. Approximately 400 care providers across the East of England region attended, along with NHS England, Local Authorities, private sector tech suppliers, and University of Hertfordshire who brought along robots.

Please share our details: DataProtection@hcpa.co.uk / www.hcpa.info/data-protection

Have the personalised reports helped to identify training needs analysis?

Have the personalised reports been helpful with identifying best training platform for staff ?

Have the personalised reports been a helpful tool in supervisions and appraisals?

Herts & Essex EOE National

HCPA SERVICES

Digital in Social Care

The NHS Transformation Directorate dedicated £25 million in funding to ICS’s throughout to support CQC registered adult social care providers in adopting technology to transform care. HCPA have been project managing the use of the Digital Transformation fund for Herts and West Essex as part of the Digital in Social Care Programme. This has included two projects, one focusing on digital social care records and another on falls prevention technology.

Digital Social Care Records (DSCR)

86% of Care Providers in Herts and West Essex now using a Digital Social Care Record.

The Secretary of State announced in 2022 that 80% of care providers would be using Digital Social Care Records from 31st March 2024. To achieve this, each ICS was granted funding to be distributed to care providers who were still using paper-based care recording to support with up to 50% of the costs of moving to a digital platform. HCPA project managed and distributed funds for Hertfordshire and West Essex.

The local target set by NHS England was for Hertfordshire and West Essex to have 473 providers using digital social care records, as of March 2024 we achieved an exceeded figure of 591 providers 86% of providers are using digital social care records in Hertfordshire and West Essex. As of January 2025, the CQC sampling demonstrates 76% of provider locations now have a digital social care records across the East of England. Our high rate of adoption across this project reflects the dedication and collaboration between the care providers and the project team, ultimately contributing to improved care quality and operational efficiency.

Herts and West Essex Providers DSCR Status

HCPA SERVICES

Falls

Prevention Technology

Acoustic Monitoring now installed across 818 beds.

After various demonstrations from different acoustic monitoring, the ICB chose Adaptive Care acoustic and visual monitoring as the technology to be used for Herts and West Essex. The decision to use Adaptive came because they were the only acoustic monitoring provider offering cameras alongside the use of acoustics, which has more benefits around reduced sleep disruption and fall prevention.

The key benefits of using Adaptive acoustic and visual monitoring are:

Reduced Falls: Adaptive Care have evidenced a 55% reduction in falls.

Better Sleep Cycles: Less checks at night means less disturbances which can lead to deeper and less interrupted sleep.

Better Care: Care professionals can dedicate time to the people who need it, when they need it, rather than relying on night checks.

Faster Response Times to Falls: Care professionals can respond quickly to falls, often before the fall happens.

Prevent Abuse: If residents are leaving their rooms or entering other resident’s rooms, this will trigger an alert, helping staff prevent resident-on-resident abuse.

Currently, we are working with 11 Quantum sites, with 818 beds spread across Herts and West Essex. 7 of these sites have gone live between February and March 2025 (Tye Green, Willow Court, Moubtbatten Lodge, Oakmoor Lodge, Elm View, Riverside Court) and while it is early days, we have already heard the below benefits being reported:

Oakmoor predict they prevented 4 falls within the first 3 hours of using the technology, thanks to staff being able to reach the resident in time.

Elm view had no falls overnight since the technology went live on 3rd March.

Residents in Mountbatten Lodge have reported that they like not being disturbed by people “popping their heads through the door.”

HCPA are working with colleagues in Essex and Hertfordshire County Council to distribute the remaining funding to the providers that need it most. In the next financial year, we hope to have finalised installation in 1,000 beds (818 currently installed) and have data to evaluate the effectiveness of acoustic and visual monitoring and review the return on investment for NHS England.

HCPA SERVICES

Delegated Health Care Activities

HCPA conducted a survey designed to gather information on the tasks being performed, the training received by care providers, competency checks in place, and the confidence levels of the staff when taking on delegated healthcare activities. The survey aimed to identify areas of improvement and the current state of delegated healthcare activities. It was distributed to care providers across Hertfordshire and West Essex using Microsoft Forms, ensuring a broad reach and capturing a comprehensive view of the region’s practices.

The survey received over 300 responses, providing substantial data on current practices and perceptions regarding delegated healthcare tasks. Using these findings, we have started three proof-of-concept pilots across Residential, Homecare and Adult Disability Settings. In the financial year of 2024/2025, we started our Residential Pilot of trialling the role of a Governance Lead in 5 homes.

Residential Pilot – Governance Leads

Working with 5 Quantum Homes to pilot the role of Delegated Healthcare Activity Governance Leads

When exploring the data around training and competency checks, we found the key challenges for care providers willing to take on delegated healthcare activities were:

Training Availability:

One of the significant barriers to proper training was the capacity of district nurses needed to deliver competency checks and specialised training (e.g., wound care). This was particularly problematic for care providers with limited resources, preventing them from ensuring all staff were adequately trained.

Another key struggle for care providers was the lack of funded training available for them; often they would reach out to providers who would refuse to provide training as their remit was for healthcare only.

Staff Availability:

The availability of care staff to attend training sessions was another challenge. Frequent staff absences, scheduling conflicts, and other practical issues often disrupted training. Within the pilot this was relatively straightforward to resolve as we had dedicated trainers and coordinators, but for a care organisation to manage the training alongside schedules and providing care we can see this would be costly, as some training sessions were delivered to just one member of staff due to limited availability.

HCPA SERVICES

Delegated Health Care Activities

To address these challenges, HCPA are trialling a Delegated Healthcare Activities Governance Lead role. This person would act as the primary contact for both healthcare professionals and care staff, ensuring proper training, competency checks, and a clear understanding of which tasks should be delegated.

Working with Quantum Care, we identified wound care as an area of opportunity as there were a number of tasks eligible for delegated activities. This was also reported as the most common area for delegation in our report and we have anecdotal feedback from healthcare partners that it is a common area of confusion when it comes to roles and responsibilities.

Speaking with the governance leads, we realised early on the importance of awareness training for all staff, ensuring they understand both general care tasks and the specific delegated healthcare activities. This type of training would help create consistency across the workforce, enabling staff to feel confident in performing their roles and reducing task refusals.

To offer this training, HCPA were able to offer flexible contracts to two tissue viability nurses, one from each local trust, to work directly with the homes to offer training as well as developing necessary resources for delegation, such as handover templates and skin tear checklists.

As a result of this work, local trusts are now in the process of developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for wound care delegation. These procedures are designed to clarify staff expectations, provide guidance on what actions to take in case of issues, and outline overall delegation policies. Once this has been signed off the care homes will start taking on specific delegated tasks.

Our next steps will be to start exploring other areas for delegation and evaluating data so we can understand the return on investment for the Governance Leads. Something we have learnt from this work is that local trusts do not currently hold data specific to delegated healthcare activities, which has made it difficult to evaluate outcomes for staff and people receiving care. We are working with the trusts and care providers to understand how best to collate data so we can thoroughly measure the impact of delegation, and whether there is a significant enough return on investment to make it a sustainable option.

HCPA SERVICES - BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

The Business Development Services have continued to successfully develop across the year. The aim of the services is to support continuous quality improvement for care services. By listening to feedback from care managers and owners on their barriers and issues, alongside issues highlighted by compliance and contract monitoring, the Business Development Team create and develop a range of solutions and support tailored to these needs. The following summarises activity across the various services:

Impartial Feedback Service (IFS)

164 services engaged; 74% completed to the 40% return rate required.

The Impartial Feedback Service (IFS) is a full-service evaluation for Adult Social Care Providers. Evaluation questionnaires are provided by HCPA for providers to distribute to people using the service, carers and families, staff and professionals. The survey questions are designed to provide an overall report aligned to the CQC key questions and quality statements. The surveys are online and easy to access on many devices, responses return directly to HCPA for efficiency and sustainability.

All 5 areas, (Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-Led) showed improved satisfaction results this year. The service is continually improving. Work has taken place to further automate for sustainability whilst ensuring it is user friendly. The IFS continues to be promoted via relevant HCPA Leadership and Education programmes, e-news and at all HCPA events. The IFS continues to be a mandatory service for care providers wishing to achieve HCPA Gold Membership, as a measurement of their commitment to continual quality improvement.

All providers were asked to complete a survey on the IFS Survey and responded as follows:

The IFS provided appropriate & applicable questions to my organisation? 100% agreed the questions were appropriate.

Were you satisfied with the service?

100% agreed

I would recommend the IFS to others.

100% would highly recommend the service to others to support quality improvement.

Feedback from people using the service:

I wanted to express my appreciation for the excellent service I received.

Alina Muhamed, Wilton House Ltd

This service is very helpful especially to a manager who does not have a lot of experience. The links provided and practical suggestions make it easy to come up with an action plan that the rest of the senior staff team can follow.

Lorah Vhiriri, L&F Care Services

HCPA SERVICES - BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Provides adult social care providers with tools, resources and 1:1 support. Tools and resources have been developed and made available to identify strengths and challenges for the organisation to facilitate robust action planning and therefore business development, continuity, and resilience. Support is spread over eight 1-hour sessions with managers completing work in between sessions. As care managers struggle with priorities, the completion of a plan can take at least several months to over a year to be fully completed.

70 services engaged with support

63% completed

100% of all referrals contacted within 4 working days

We have enhanced the service delivery with the following:

8 YouTube videos covering each of the eight sessions that managers can access in their own time continue to be available as an alternative to 1:1 support.

Walk through sessions for HCC Monitoring Officers to inform them about the service and standardise expectations.

Additional subject specific action card support e.g. Power Outage and Hot Weather. These include suggestions and information relevant to the emergency scenario specific to the care sector.

A survey to gather feedback is given to every provider following successful completion of the Business continuity planning support:

100% have found the service supportive and helpful.

100% of providers who complete the development of their Business Continuity Plans said they would continue to develop and strengthen their plans as a result of the service.

Feedback is reviewed on a weekly basis, the outcomes and feedback ratings have been positive and at a high standard. There is follow up in place to seek opportunities for continuous improvements to the service and support given.

Positive feedback relating to the robustness of the Business Continuity Planning Toolkit has been received from Monitoring officers and CQC inspectors.

100% found that the BCP had enhanced their knowledge in at least 1 or more areas of practice.

Across our feedback survey we accrued an average satisfaction score of 9.4 out of 10 for this service.

A sample of the feedback and comments received:

We have observed an improvement in both our governance and practice. The support has provided clear guidelines and protocols for managing business continuity during disruptions or emergencies, enhancing our governance by establishing a structured framework for risk assessment and response. Additionally, the BCP support has fostered a culture of preparedness and resilience within our organisation, leading to greater proactive identification of risks and vulnerabilities. Tendai Gudo - First Choice Medical See full report

We are now experiencing a heightened sense of empowerment and a greater ability to exercise control and confidence in our implementation of the Business Continuity Plan (BCP). The BCP incorporates a section for action cards, significantly expediting the implementation of necessary actions. Leo Musiyiwa - Empathy Care24 Ltd

HCPA SERVICES - BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

The Agency Charter of Excellence

The ACE Mark was developed by HCPA during 2021-22 to identify agencies that have provided evidence to demonstrate their commitment to quality assurance.

ACE Charter Mark Holders are advertised on the HCPA website. This service has again been a real benefit this year as a resource for care providers hit by staff shortages. Care managers are able to quickly access information relating to agencies who have achieved the charter mark and can quickly see the borough in which the service operates and what type of staff are available.

24 agencies have successfully achieved/retained the Charter of Excellence Mark during 2024/25.

HCPA SERVICES - BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Culture Surveys

The Culture Surveys support providers to get feedback on the culture within the workplace and on whether they are providing culturally appropriate care for the people using their services.

6Cs - workplace culture is completed by staff, based on the 6Cs (Care, Commitment, Courage, Competence, Communication and Compassion). Feedback from staff is formulated into an overall report for the service manager and proprietor. The report provides an overall staff loyalty assessment and a positivity assessment, plus a detailed evaluation of the staff feedback relating to the 6Cs.

Committed Loyalists Satified Opportunists Change Seekers

Dissatisfied Compromisers

98.8% Positivity Assessment

Cultural Values in Care (CVC) - is completed by people using the service and the staff providing the service. Based on the DHSC 7 Universal Sector Values, the feedback is formulated into an overall report for the service manager and proprietor. The report provides a breakdown of feedback by value, comments and an insight into whether the service provides care that meets the cultural needs of the people using the service.

Any Care Setting December 2024 - All Responses - Overall Satisfaction

This is a part of the requirement for HCPA Gold Membership. The resulting report will aim to assess how much team members understand and buy in to a service’s values and gives insight into how to get back on track. The outcomes from the report may be helpful in recruitment and will aid retention.

A total of 99 services have engaged with the culture surveys during 2024-25 with 75% achieving the 80% return rate required.

Feedback comments included: It’s always good to have the support from HCPA to reflect on service practice and implement changes that are needed. Jane Coelho, Manage Care Homes Staff culture

Positive impact on staff retention.

HCPA SERVICES - BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Inspection and Monitoring Support Service (IMSS)

The Inspection and Monitoring Support service was new for 2023-24. The aim is to provide adult social care providers (older people and adult disability services) with tools, resources and 1:1 support to ensure appropriate pre and post-inspection and monitoring support is provided to adult social care providers in Hertfordshire. Tools and resources have been developed and made available to identify strengths and challenges for the organisation to facilitate robust systems, governance and service improvement action planning in order to meet the regulatory requirements.

HCPA Business Development Coaches have designed an array of tools providing a structured approach to the review and support sessions with providers. The tools incorporate key insights from both Monitoring Officers, CQC Inspectorate and good practice guidelines alike. The service combines quality assurance and business sustainability. It also challenges the provider to think critically about smart ways to embed systems and structures that set clear benchmarks, ensure frequent and robust monitoring occurs, allow for reflective practice and encourage the leadership to look for opportunities to continuously improve practice. Over the year, an increase in provider Registered Manager turnover has been frustrating as this has been disruptive and potentially lengthened the engagement time.

Care providers can access the service either by referral from HCC or self-referral. 70 providers have accessed the service during the reporting period. 100% of referrals have been contacted within 3 working days and scoping meetings to assess need set up promptly.

Post service feedback surveys have been conducted to assess the usefulness and effectiveness of our Inspection and Monitoring Support offer:

100% have found the service supportive and helpful.

98% of those who fully engaged in our IMSS (Inspection and Monitoring Support Service) completed the review and said they would continue to develop and strengthen their processes and Safety Improvement.

Across our feedback survey we accrued an average satisfaction score of 9.75 out of 10 for this service.

Our Partnership working with local community has changed, our approach to continuous improvements has increased, and we now share Good practice with staff, and able to share learning points, and we engage in networking. Gladys Chingoka At Home Support Service

Yes, we had a PAMMS inspection today and the governance report helped me show the work we are doing. Amy Oakes - Nouvita Healthcare

HCPA SERVICES - BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Business Coaching

The purpose is to provide adult social care providers (older people and adult disability services) Senior or Registered Managers with the tools and 1:1 support to help providers reach their chosen goals, have good oversight and plans to manage and improve workplace performance by focusing on the specific goals set, and the competencies and skills required to achieve them. 29 services have engaged with Business Coaching. 3 areas of coaching are available:

Executive Coaching: Could relate to implementing new areas, change or development.

Supervision: Providing support for small care provision where supervision is not available for Senior Management.

Grow Your Business: Support for new or small care providers to grow their business, including planning and developing a growth strategy.

Business

Coaching by type

12 (41.38%)

6 (20.69%)

11 (37.93%)

Business Coaching - Executive Coaching

Business Coaching - Supervision for Mgrs NI

Business Coaching - Grow Your Business

We are currently piloting a new service – Registered Managers Onboarding for Success. Working with Herts Good Care, the aim of this work is to support new Registered Managers by offering practical mentoring and coaching as part of a retention and skill enhancing project.

Feedback:

100% have found the service valuable.

98% of those who completed coaching support said they felt able to apply the same tools and techniques to new challenges and obstacles.

A satisfaction score of 9.9 out of 10 was achieved for Business Coaching A sample of comments received:

I have more confidence and clarity on the training and development systems we have in place now. I have been able to feed this down to other members in the team who also feel these new ways of working are easy to follow, yet comprehensive. Holly Karuthasami - Sleapcross House Ltd

We have become more empowered to proactively manage staff attitudes and behaviours and hold staff to account for this, in a positive way, to improve our culture and outcomes for people we support.

Jenny Green – St Elizabeth’s

Summary - Overall, the support offers have been well received, and we have seen improved outcomes with some of the providers who have engaged in our services between 6-12 months post service engagement. As a department we continue to adapt our offers to meet the pressing sector needs and continue to be invested in supporting the delivery of quality care across Hertfordshire.

See full report

HCPA SERVICES - RECRUITMENT

Herts Good Care is education, an attraction campaign and full recruitment service working with the public and adult social care providers as well as HCC, to attract new employees into the sector.

It provides one-to-one support for care providers and applicants. The Herts Good Care team also attend job fairs, schools and colleges to promote social care careers.

The website supports care providers to advertise vacancies, holds a wealth of resources and toolkits to support providers to recruit individuals into the sector with the right values and attitude.

271 new staff have been recruited into the sector by the service this year. Added to previous years’ activity, the project has now recruited over 3,500 care staff into the sector.

Good Care Month (both in January and July) is facilitated by Herts Good Care to actively showcase the benefits of working in adult social care and highlights the dedication and enthusiasm of staff already enjoying a care career. In turn, this encourages members of the public to join us in our rewarding sector.

HCPA - EXTRA PROJECTS

Succession Planning 2024/2025

Due to the success of delivering HCPA’s Succession Planning leadership programme since 2021, the project continues to give providers access this valuable training. This programme has been designed to equip organisations to implement a standardised programme of leadership succession planning and leadership development. It will support new and aspiring leaders to become knowledgeable, confident, and competent at leading their teams and support business resilience which is an area found to be ‘wanting’. Succession Planning has created standardised progression routes within organisations which will link into the Care Professional Academy. It will grow leadership talent and open course options. There is a need for an on-going intervention to rebuild the workforce leaders, so this is designed as a programme comprising of research, focused coproduction and design, delivery, and Impact Evaluation, based on learning and reflection relating to endorsed Skills for Care products.

HCPA developed two stages focusing on ‘aspiring leaders’- growing talent to enable care providers to feel confident that they have a succession plan, and ‘current leaders’ - developing continuing professional development, aimed at retaining good leaders within their roles.

40 Learners to have completed Succession Planning training

40% Increase in learners’ confidence and knowledge

Average scores of 8 and above on course evaluations

The impact of HCPA’s Succession Planning leadership programme on the delegate’s knowledge and confidence:

THE CARE PROFESSIONAL ACADEMY

24/25 Report on Rewarding Adult Care Staff and Tracking Professional Development

Introduction

The Care Professional Academy is an innovative platform dedicated to the entire Adult Social Care workforce offering numerous benefits, including individuals having their own portable training passport, uploading and safekeeping of all training certificates in one place, access to sector news, and receiving exclusive rewards and discounts at over 880 retailers. This report outlines the platform’s features and its mission to professionalise Adult Social Care. Providers can sign up to the Academy to support and enhance their recruitment and retention strategies and enable development of their culture across their whole organisation. Through the provider portal providers can view their teams’ certificates, training reminders for refresher courses, run reports and have evidence at their fingertips for their governance and compliance at a micro level.

14,000 Care Professionals are currently benefitting from the Academy across Hertfordshire, with 402 Providers using the Provider Portal in their day-to-day business for compliance and governance; other providers who have an LMS in place are promoting the rewards and discounts along with the training passport to their workforce.

Mission & Vision

Our mission is to provide all Social Care Professionals with a ‘passport to progress’, encouraging opportunities for growth and development that are linked to rewards. We are committed to supporting the elevation of the social care sector by ensuring Care Professionals receive the recognition, rewards, and career parity they deserve. Together, we aim to build a future where Social Care is valued equally, and professionals are empowered to thrive.

Our vision is to create a future where Social Care Professionals are empowered, recognised, and valued on par with their NHS counterparts. We envision a thriving Social Care Sector where every professional has access to a tracking portal for certificates showing career advancement, meaningful rewards, and opportunities to prove personal growth. Through our commitment to equity, professional development, and specialised rewards, we aim to elevate the status of social care, ensuring it is celebrated and respected as an essential pillar of our society. We aim to elevate the quality of social care for those drawing on services and ensure that social care is respected and celebrated as an essential element of society with a workforce that is proud of their achievements.

Values

We are committed to empowering Care Professionals by promoting equity, professional development and ensuring reward and recognition. Together, we champion workforce quality and take pride in supporting those who make a difference every day.

Logging Training and Professional Development

Certificates and Training Tiers

Care Professionals can log all their qualifications and training certifications relevant to their roles in Adult Social Care. These can range from college/university courses, Care Induction, NVQ’s, QCF’s, refresher courses, clinical and condition led training, webinars, and job-specific training. Each certificate added to the Academy portal increases the Care Professional’s tier, offering enhanced rewards from tier 1 to tier 5, reflecting their dedication to professional growth.

THE CARE PROFESSIONAL ACADEMY (CONT.)

Passport to Progress

The training passport is a comprehensive record of all training and development activities undertaken by the Care Professional. This tool can be used during supervisions, appraisals, and job interviews to demonstrate qualifications and discuss future training and career progression goals. Care Professionals can download their training passport or individual certificates through the portal.

Rewarding Care Professionals

Welcome Pack and Academy Pin Badge

After registration and uploading just 6 hours of training certificates, Care Professionals receive a welcome pack that includes an Academy pin badge. This badge symbolises their status as a professional in the care sector and can be worn with pride.

Employee Benefit Programme – Tier 1

Care Professionals can access numerous benefits, including discounts, savings, and cashback from over 880 + UK retailers. These benefits are available in a range of forms including digital codes, reloadable savings cards, digital wallet (which can be linked to Apple Pay) plus cashback on purchases including all the UK’s major supermarkets, fashion, DIY, holidays, days out, restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, health & fitness, children’s holidays camps and a mortgage service free of charge.

In addition to supporting financial wellbeing, we are able to offer ‘Support for You’ (Employee Assistance Programme) confidential counselling and our Wellbeing Centre focusing on Munch, Money, Move and Mind to support fitness and healthy eating. Each Care Professional and their partner can sign up and self-fund at a discounted rate a fantastic Health Care Cash Plan that will move with them.

Travel Club and Discounts – Tier 2

The Academy travel club provides 10% off car and van rentals, unbeatable car leasing deals, and discounts on vehicle MOT’s, tyres, exhausts and servicing. In some areas of Hertfordshire, we are able to offer discounted bus travel.

Student Zone Discounts – Tier 3

Care Professionals have access to free online student discounts, plus the option to purchase an NUS Student Card, and significant discounts at over 200 UK and 42,000 worldwide retailers. This program supports continuous learning and offers various concessions. Tier 3 Care Professionals can apply to join the Annual Scholars Programme which offers up to 25 affiliates the chance to study Change Management and Project Management while implementing a Change Management Project in their workplace. This fully funded opportunity includes:

Skills for Care Leading Change Improving Care certificate

Project Management principles

Implementation of NICE Guidelines

Preferential Rates & Competition Zone – Tier 4

Care Professionals enjoy preferential rates on essential workwear, health & safety essentials, household items, bespoke products and gift & experience days, as well as regular competitions.

Luxury Deals – Tier 5

Benefit from substantial savings on luxury experiences, spa days, hotel stays, and lifestyle products.

THE CARE PROFESSIONAL ACADEMY (CONT.)

Certificate Validation

Introduction

All certificates are validated when they are uploaded to the portal. The Care Professional and Provider Portal Administrator are notified when the certificate has been uploaded, validated and again at the time of pending expiry at 60, 30, 5 and 1 days to ensure compliance and fair notice to rebook the refresher course.

In this reporting period, Care Professional Academy validated 25,279 certificates; below is the breakdown of the type of training of the certificates validated across Hertfordshire:

36% of training across Hertfordshire was delivered by a Care Academy Approved Training Provider, Local Authority, Care Association, Skills for Care Endorsed or Centre of Excellence

49% of training across Hertfordshire was delivered via e-learning platforms

15% was delivered by providers own internal Trainers

Care Academy Approved Training Provider, Local Authority, Care Association, Skill for Care Endorsed or Centre of Excellence

Distance Learning SCILS

E-Learning

External Training Provider (Locally Approved or Skills for Care

Foreign Studies

Internal Training (Locally Approved or Skills for Care Endorsed)

Internal Training (Not Locally Approved or Skills for Care Endorsed)

Nationally Recognised Awarding Body

Other training provider

THE CARE PROFESSIONAL ACADEMY (CONT.)

Feedback

The Care Professional Academy proactively seeks feedback, allowing us to understand in full the end-user experience and needs so we can review and implement new efficiencies. We are pleased to have received 89% positive ratings from Care Professionals and 94% from providers using the portal.

Developments and technology

Throughout 2024/25 we have implemented significant changes to our efficiencies and use of our CRM focusing on the validation of certificates, followed by enhancements to the provider portal, implementing the RAG system for training compliance, competency assessments, a comprehensive training report, ease of use for the provider portal administrators and reduction of ambiguity. In 2025 we will be launching the CarePro App for Care Professionals to have their profile and rewards all in one place, on the go, with one login and with significant ease of use.

Our future developments will continue to be focused on feedback and the end user experience. This includes a report to export and then import into the Skills for Care training portal to reduce duplication, support the collection of essential statistics for our sector; CPD log and general enhancements throughout the system.

Conclusion

The Care Professional Academy plays a pivotal role in transforming the perception and status of Adult Social Care Professionals. By providing tools for tracking professional development and offering extensive rewards, the Academy not only enhances the career prospects of its Care Professionals but also elevates the entire sector. Joining the Academy signifies a commitment to excellence and a proactive approach to professional growth in Adult Social Care.