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Proactive care benefits your business, service users and staff. Preventative strategies reduce long-term care costs due to fewer hospital visits and better allocation of resources. Increased quality of care enhances service users' wellbeing, independence and experience of care. Proactive care might just be the thing to bring our social care workforce back from the brink by reducing stress, freeing up time and creating a more rewarding work experience. For care providers with an eye on future-proofing their services, implementing proactive care strategies now also aligns with regulatory guidelines, CQC expectations and government funding opportunities
Proactive care benefits
- Financial - reduces long-term care costs.
- Quality of care - enhances service users’ wellbeing and independence.
- Workforce retention - reduces stress and creates a more rewarding work environment for frontline staff.
- Regulatory guidelines - opens up government funding opportunities.
Building proactive care into your organisational strategy
Shifting from reactive to proactive care delivery won’t happen by accident. To future-proof your service, proactive care has to be a priority for everyone. These six tips can help you build proactive care into your organisational strategy.
Secure leadership commitment
If proactive care is an organisational priority, must come from the top down. Set clear goals that you can track and measure. Appoint proactive care champions at all levels to help embed preventative care measures into your organisational strategy.
Make staff engagement a priority
Engage staff on day one and bring them along for the ride. Proactive care benefits everyone, but especially our frontline workers. Train staff so they can spot early warning signs of health deterioration and act on them. Build a proactive mindset reframing care from ‘task delivery’ to ‘maintaining wellbeing’. Reward and celebrate staff who take proactive care measures into their own hands.
Use care management and data for smart care planning
Use a care management platform to track trends and set up proactive alerts to monitor risks like reduced mobility or behaviour changes. Use data to identify service users who may need additional support in the future and to help efficiently allocate resources.
Make proactive care a daily practice
For long-term success, care should switch from task-based to outcomes-focused. Encourage staff to make suggestions, share concerns and take action before health deterioration leads to a crisis. Keep proactive care on the agenda by discussing it at every team meeting and making it a part of your daily practice.
Track outcomes and measure success
This is the most important step for proactive care to become part of your strategy for the future. Track the outcomes of proactive care, measure successes and refine it over time.
Proactive care metrics to track:
- Falls prevention success rate.
- Reduced incidents of behaviour that challenges.
- Goals achieved helping service users gain life skills.
- Safeguarding concerns address proactively.
- Participation in social activities to maintain wellbeing.
- Family satisfaction with proactive support.
- Money saved by preventative measures.
- Staff time freed up by not responding to crises.
- Staff engagement and retention.
- Reduction in hospital admissions.
- Service user wellbeing and independence.
- Early warning signs flagged and mitigated.
Use data to improve proactive care by:
- Implementing proactive care reviews.
- Sharing success with staff, families and service users.
- Adjusting care measures based on what’s working and what needs improvement.
Future-proof your service with proactive care
Embed proactive care in your service and community for the long term. Stay up-to-date and aligned with government priorities by:
- Co-producing services with your local authority and aligning proactive care with wider healthcare goals.
- Staying ahead of policy and funding changes by subscribing to regulatory newsletters and participating in industry forums.
- Investing in scalable solutions, don’t adopt a technology that can’t grow with you. Start small or with a trial and expand based on your success.
- Tracking emerging trends in AI and predictive analytics, data-driven care planning, and therapeutic gamification.
10 strategic planning tips for proactive care.
- Assess where you are now.
How proactive is your care at the moment? Take our quiz in Chapter 1.
- Set measurable proactive care goals with key milestones.
What would you like to achieve in the next year and what small steps can help you get there?
- Choose a starting point.
Start small by tracking one health indicator or implement a care management platform to track several at once.
- Define your proactive care priorities and actions.
What proactive care measures will impact your service users the most and what small steps can help you get there?
- Engage staff and service users.
Share the benefits of proactive care with your team and the people you support. Be transparent about your plans and bring everyone on board.
- Decide what technology you need for implementation.
What technology will make your proactive care plans a reality? Consider tools like care management platforms, shared care records and remote monitoring.
- Create a budget and funding plan.
Proactive care doesn’t have to cost a lot. In the long run, it will save money and time. What small changes can you make now to have a big impact over time?
- Take steps to embed proactive care in your culture.
Proactive care won’t catch on if it isn’t part of your culture. Show staff they’re valued by asking for their input and celebrating their successes.
- Track outcomes, measure success and adjust.
Select metrics that will help track the outcomes of proactive care, measure the success of your initiatives and adjust over time.
- Make proactive care a sustainable part of your strategy for the future.
Work with local authorities and commissioners on co-produced strategies to ensure proactive care stays on the agenda.
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