.png)
One of the most important things about your care service is its culture. It determines how you deliver care, the people you work with and the wellbeing of your service users. For proactive care to thrive, it requires we embed it into the culture of our services. This needs to come from the top down through open communication, transparency, staff engagement and continuous learning.
{{callout="/inner-callouts/proactive-care-ebook-chapter-6-embed-in-culture"}}
Key requirements for building a proactive culture
Leadership
All culture comes from the top and that’s particularly true of proactive care. Without leadership buy-in, you can’t expect your staff to get on board - especially when they have so many other things to do! Leadership must communicate clearly why proactive care is a priority for your service. Bring staff in on the goals you want to achieve and share how they’ll positively impact service users.
Communication
You can’t over-communicate if you prioritise your service’s culture. Encourage open discussions about proactive care measures among leadership, staff and service users. Ask them to share concerns and ideas. Giving everyone a seat at the table shows that you value their input so they know you have their best interests at heart.
Transparency
Nothing kills a culture quicker than a lack of transparency. Be open about why it’s important to embed proactive care in the service’s culture. A lack of communication leaves staff and service users wondering where they stand and why things are changing. Proactive care is shaping the future of social care and has so many benefits - that’s something to shout about.
Staff development
If staff don’t understand the benefits of proactive care or don’t have the skills to deliver it, it won’t become embedded in your culture. By developing and engaging staff through tailored training, care providers can identify gaps in skills and enhance knowledge.
A lack of training and development opportunities is one of the most prevalent reasons people leave a role, so use the shift to proactive care as an opportunity to invest in training your team. Not only will it result in better outcomes for your business and service users, but you’ll also see an increase in job satisfaction and be able to retain staff for longer.
13 tips for embedding proactive care in your daily delivery
- Shift from a task-based approach to an outcomes-focused approach.
- Celebrate staff who flag small health changes before they become a crisis.
- Use a care management platform’s real-time data tracking to identify risks.
- Make data-driven proactive care reviews a part of your processes.
- Include proactive care tasks in shift handovers.
- Reward carers who suggest proactive care changes in care plans.
- Reframe care from ‘delivering tasks’ to ‘maintaining wellbeing’.
- Train staff to spot and escalate early warning signs.
- Share your success stories when proactive care prevents hospitalisations.
- Make goal setting to maintain quality of life and independence a part of proactive care planning.
- Measure the success of your proactive care strategy.
- Share improvements with staff to show the impact of their proactive care.
- Recognise and reward staff for taking proactive action.
How proactive care catches on: closed vs open cultures
Bogtree Care Service is renowned for its high staff turnover and disengaged board. It operates in a reactive, top-down environment, where staff are discouraged from making suggestions and don’t have the autonomy to make care decisions. When one of the managers suggests implementing more proactive care measures, they’re met with:
- Resistance from leadership - while not opposed to proactive care, they don’t support it. Insisting carers prioritise daily task completion over long-term prevention.
- Limited staff engagement - carers who raise concerns about health decline are told to stick to the care plan.
- Minimal use of technology - because of resistance from leadership to switch from paper records, it’s hard to spot patterns or stage health interventions.
- Reactive mindset - care plans are only adjusted after a crisis occurs rather than finding ways to prevent it in the first place.
- Lack of training in proactive care so staff struggle to spot early warning signs or deliver preventive care.
Instead of proactive care becoming embedded in Bogtree Care Service’s culture
- Falls and emergency hospital admissions increase.
- Instead of gaining independence, residents become more dependent and have greater care needs.
- Staff feel overwhelmed and undervalued - often leaving for a new role in a matter of months.
- CQC ratings suffer as the home is failing to deliver preventative care.
On the flipside, Snug Cove is a new, independently run care home, working to embed proactive care in the culture. Leadership is doing this through open communication, digital integration and staff engagement. This looks like:
- Leadership buy-in - ensuring staff have time and training to focus on proactive care.
- Staff engagement - care workers' input is celebrated and valued. Staff feel empowered to suggest proactive care measures and speak up if they see signs of declining health.
- Digital adoption - the home uses a care management platform to help spot patterns and save staff time on administration.
- Celebrating success - with regular meetings to review and measure proactive care strategies.
At Snug Cove, proactive care is now firmly embedded in the culture, leading to:
- A reduction in falls due to early interventions.
- Residents maintain independence with fewer care needs.
- High job satisfaction among staff who feel valued and celebrated.
- Fewer hospital admissions, reducing overall care costs.
10 questions to help build a proactive workplace culture
Your service’s culture is what it’s known for. It’s reflected in how your service users feel, how your staff show up and the ratings you receive.
Once a culture has been created, it's hard to change. So, if proactive care is something you want to be recognised for, be intentional about embedding it into your culture from the start.
These 10 questions from the Skills for Care Positive Culture Toolkit will help you define what you want your service to be known for and how to build proactive care into your vision, purpose and strategy.
- What is your articulated culture?
Your articulated culture is what you communicate to potential and existing staff through your vision, purpose, values and strategy. Are you letting them know that your service is a place where speaking up and raising concerns about service users is valued?
- How visible is your culture?
How do you present your vision values and culture in visible symbols such as the physical environment, internal and external communications and branding? Would someone coming to your service for the first time be presented with a proactive and open culture?
- What are your expectations for behaviour?
How do you expect people to behave and how do you share those expectations through your policies, procedures and codes of conduct? Is proactive care mentioned in your policies so new staff know that flagging health risks and suggesting changes to care plans is celebrated?
- How do you observe your lived culture?
How do people behave when no one is watching and how inclusive are those behaviours? Is proactive care still a priority when you’re not around? Communicating the benefits to staff can help embed proactive care in their daily practice.
- What feedback do you receive?
How do staff and service users feel and what do they say about your culture? Do staff feel valued for their approach to proactive care? Do service users feel supported to live more independently and achieve their goals?
- How are decisions made and reinforced?
Do you reinforce and reward positive behaviour and challenge behaviour not
in line with your culture? Are care workers who suggest proactive care measures being rewarded? What happens if an early warning sign has been ignored, resulting in a crisis that could have been avoided?
- How do you embed a culture of proactive care into everyday practice?
What practical actions ensure that what you say is your culture is lived out in your daily operations? Are you tracking proactive care measures in care plans, celebrating staff who suggest preventative care measures, reframing tasks from 'delivering care' to 'maintaining wellbeing'.
- How do you support a culture of inclusion?
How do you ensure everyone feels valued and has a sense of belonging? Is proactive care accessible to all your service users? Have you identified anyone who's at risk of exclusion?
- How do you develop collaboration and compassion?
How does leadership support a compassionate and collaborative environment? Is leadership supportive of staff suggesting preventative measures, or are staff expected to do what they're told and not ask questions?
- How do you monitor and review proactive culture over time?
What processes are in place to review and continuously improve your culture? Are you auditing your proactive approach to see if staff have adopted early interventions into your daily practice?
.svg){kind=icon}
