In 2024, we commissioned Ipsos to carry out research with adult social care providers in England. We wanted to understand what support you are receiving to ensure medicines are managed safely, how the support impacts the quality of care that you deliver and your future support needs. We know that medicines management can be especially challenging for services. We are grateful to those who have shared their views through this research – it has enabled us to strengthen our evidence base and raise awareness of the challenges faced.
Key headlines from the research included:
Community pharmacy and primary care support
Just under half (49%) of all adult social care providers said the support they receive from community pharmacies fully meets their needs. Care homes were more likely to say the support they receive meets their needs but smaller services and care at home services found it more difficult to access support.
Some providers said they had difficulties and delays with medicines, including issues with delivery and shortages, communication and availability of community pharmacy staff. They also said there were challenges around administration and the training provided. To overcome gaps, some looked for alternative sources of support and advice, for example emergency services or 111. Providers said that a lack of support and advice increased their staff workload as they had to spend time trying to reach GPs, pharmacies and healthcare professionals.
Delegated healthcare tasks
Traditional nursing tasks are increasingly being taken on by care workers to help people stay in their preferred place of care. However, 40% of providers told us they could not access a healthcare professional who would delegate tasks, and 25% said they did not have the capacity due to workload. Our medicines information webpages offer useful advice on key aspects of delegated healthcare tasks in services.
Digitalisation
Government’s 2022 plan for digital health and social care aimed for 80% of CQC-registered providers to have digital social care records by March 2024. In our survey, we found only 42% of providers used electronic medicines records (eMAR) and only 36% said they used NHSmail. However, many providers told us they were useful tools. Further progress is needed to achieve this digital ambition, which should allow social care staff to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time delivering personalised care. There is more detail on the NHS registering a social care organisation webpage.
End of life care
Around 100 services (4%) said they either did not know how to or could not access the right medicine at the right time, or advice and support for the administration of medicines for people at the end of life. Access to medicines and support is vital to ensure people receive good end of life care. Help with end of life care differs locally and it is essential to investigate what support your service can access.
Medicines information and guidance
91% of providers said they accessed CQC’s medicines information pages and 97% said they found them useful or very useful. We would encourage all providers to use these pages to help make sure they are considering best practice and national guidance. We also offer an email enquiries service for any questions or queries about medicines handling in adult social care services. Email a member of the CQC medicines team on [email protected]
This valuable research supports the observations we make during our assessments – that working in partnership across services within the community is key to providing an effective service. I was pleased to read recently about Orchid Care Home in Swindon. Just rated as ‘Outstanding’ in a recent assessment, the team has taken a proactive approach to building relationships with local healthcare partners and the community. For example, its work with a mental health nurse in supporting dementia care in the home led to a decrease in behaviours of distress for people. These actions improve experiences for everyone.
What support has your organisation received to ensure medicines are managed safely? Leave a comment on this column or join the conversation to share your thoughts.
Mary Cridge is Director of Adult Social Care at the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Email: [email protected] X: @CQCProf