Care homes as ‘community assets’ and potential legislation over visiting rights – what providers learned this week about the government’s vision for their future role.
Care home providers got a bit more of a look at the government’s plans for their role within its neighbourhood health and care plans this week, with the release of an overarching delivery framework.
The plans talked about a shift from care homes being seen as isolated facilities to integrated community assets that are used much more for short term respite purposes rather than permanent residency, as part of plans to ‘reduce avoidable care home admissions’.
This shift dovetails with separate messaging from the Department this week over visiting rights. Ministers said they are exploring whether to bring forward legislation to make visiting a statutory right after its review of existing regulations found some care homes – as well as hospitals and hospices – are restricting family and friends visits into homes and resident trips out.
The message is clear: policy makers want to see an end to a culture that views care homes’ role as a final destination for many older people. An end to the home as a place where our older relatives often locked away to deteriorate on their way towards the end of their lives.
The vision of care homes for older people as open and engaged parts of the community is one that is shared by many in the sector of course. After spending just one day among provider leaders at the Care England conference last week, and less than a month in post, I’ve already heard many stories of lively and positive interactions between care home staff and residents and their communities, where the care environment is part of the vibrant fabric of local life.
I plan to bring more of these stories into the print and digital pages of The Care Home Environment. I want to know how care home design and management can be configured to ensure both tangible and unseen institutional barriers to community inclusion and engagement are reduced or removed altogether. and – crucially - the impact this has on resident outcomes.
For some with a more closed, traditional culture this shift will be more difficult. Opening up can be hard to do. But, as we live longer and there are more older than younger people in our communities it is in all our interests to see this shift from isolation to engagement, with more care providers offering a positive, visible impact in our local areas.
I’m looking forward to reading and sharing more inspirational stories of care homes as community assets over the coming months. Please do reach out if you resonate with this and you have a tale to share. I look forward to hearing from you.
