Unit 3 Challenges in Health and Social Care Assignment

Program	Diploma in Health and Social Care
Unit Number and Title	Unit 3 Challenges in Health and Social Care
QFC Level	Level 4

Introduction

Facilitating change in any organization is a dynamic process that brings about a potential impact on its service users as well as its service providers. For any organization such as the health and social care corporations, change is inevitable as it marks the success of the corporation. Local Action for the Disabled (LAD) is one such organization that runs residential homes and other services for people with learning disabilities. The purpose of this challenges in health social care report is to highlight the key features responsible for bringing about change in the organization, the strategies adopted to implement such changes and its consequent impact.

 

Task 1

1.1 key factors that drive change in health and social care

Services

Since LAD is shifting its services from residential care to supported living, it is crucially important to consider the key factors that drive change in such services to see whether they can be accommodated or not. These key factors are as follows:

• Political: It has a great influence on change in  health and social care  organization as it concerns about policies and guidelines of the government, economic stability in the country, norms and regulations, economic policies, government's residential land criteria, funding issues, etc. The change of government can also lead to a major setback in the progress of the project.
• Legal: A broad range of legislative acts can affect the changes getting introduced in LAD which includes Health Act 2006, NHS and Community Care Act 1990, Health and Social Care Act 2012, Care Act 2014, etc. In any case, none of the guidelines set by these constitutional acts shall be offended to get appropriate results in the favour of the change.
• Demographic and cultural: Some factors such as age of the users, community needs, lifestyle factors, etc can also affect LAD in shifting its services from residential care to supported living. For ex- users of higher age might not be comfortable with the new concept or others might be apprehensive about the fulfilment of their basic needs in supported living.
• Technological: Introducing new techniques such as maintaining records through electronic record keeping, electronic communication, etc. will require making the workers learn the new methodologies. Hence, resulting in incorporating and driving changes in health and social care services.

Thus, the health and social care organizations are affected largely through the above mentioned factors in various aspects. It must be ensured that the change must be incorporated smoothly and effect of the change must prove advantageous for the community and its people. (Rutter, 2014)

1.2 challenges that key factors bring to health and social care

Services

The key factors mentioned above will bring plenty of challenges not only for the staff, workers and other members of LAD but also for the service users. These challenges need to be mitigated rapidly specially in case of health and social care services in order to bring about smooth and positive changes within the organization. Some of these challenges are listed below:

• This new initiative of LAD will result into incorporating changes into existing services which can result into chaos within the organization. This is because it will take a great deal of resources and labour to make the members of the organization comfortable with the newly adopted changes.
• Maintaining the quality care is yet another challenging task keeping in mind that the superlative care provided initially does not get compromised at all. Constant quality care provision keeps the service users in confidence and gains their support that may also help in moving to supported living. (Berwick, 2016)
• Any kind of resistance or lack of interest and concern in the workers or service users for the new changes in LAD can be a bit challenging because this results in resentfulness among them that causes lack of efficiency in their work which is not acceptable at all in the beginning of a new project.
• Availability of resources is another challenge as they are needed in every field whether it be  human resources  or  financial resources. To achieve the desired resources at desired time is quite difficult during establishment of new projects.
• Matching efficiency and economy is one of the most challenging of all as we cannot compromise with it in any case. Efficient working gains the trust of the users but to maintain this efficiency, a lot of efforts need to be put in.
• Beginning of new kinds of services and changes might lead to undermining of existing services which is another major challenge for LAD. The foundation of the existing services is the strength of the organization. Hence, this shall not be compromised in any case. (Plesk, 2001)

These challenges should not be overlooked at all because they can create great difficulties within the organization if not handled properly.

Task 2

2.1 strategy and criteria for measuring recent changes in

Health and social care    

After implementing the idea of moving from residential care to supported living, the first and the foremost requirement of LAD was its management which proved to be quite challenging. So, some strategies were implemented to measure these changes which are as follows:

• Various characteristics of change were identified such as the rate of change, its scale, character, political change or intentional change, etc. that opened up many answers to the questions related to measuring these changes. These depend immensely on the factors that drive changes.
• Inspections were regulated on daily basis conducted through various ways such as questionnaire, surveys, interviews, documentation review, observations, case studies, etc. These varied kinds of inspections held out the new idea smoothly.
• Taking feedback from service users also proved to be beneficial as they were the ones who were affected the most by this shifting among all the stakeholders. Their demands and complaints against the earlier services were taken seriously and were avoided while moving to supported living.
• Self evaluation is although, given very less importance to be included in some strategies but it plays a major role in measuring changes. In case of LAD, it was indeed of great value. Evaluation was done until satisfaction was reached.
• System quality assurance is indeed another strategy that helped in making this shift from residential care to supported living possible. The shifting was unsupportive of any kind of compromise with the quality. (Bond, 2013)

A criteria was set for measuring such recent changes in health and social care organization LAD so that its decision of moving from residential care to supported living turned out to be beneficial. This included the following points:

• The change must always involve benefits for the service users that must include benefits related to their well being, raising the quality of their life, providing them with the best treatments possible and not compromising with their needs in any case.
• This change should not only be beneficial for service users but also for the organization and partners associated with them as this increases the efficiency of the organization and help in achieving desirable target services.
• Any new change must be able to fulfil the guidelines of the government and hence meet national objectives. It must not offend any rules and regulations set by the government.
• It should be ensured that the employees, workers and other staff must be very well skilled in order to measure those changes. Their skills are responsible for making mix any health and social care organization highly efficient and a great success. (Grol, 2013)

2.2 impact of recent changes on health and care service against

Set criteria

The changes in LAD were earlier initiated by many other organizations but all were an unsuccessful attempt. Thus, after this successful attempt by LAD of introducing and bringing a new change, a huge impact of these changes on its services is being observed.

This new development has caused many significant impacts not only on the service users but also on the organization and its staff. It has generated a bond of trust between the service users and the organization build on based of continuity in providing the best quality of services. Earlier they were quite apprehensive about the new concept of supported living and how they are going to get comfortable in such an environment, but now when they have actually realized that their services are not at all being undermined, so not only them but their families too seem comfortable and happy with this new change. Other than this, they observed many difficulties with the new technologies at initial level for about 5-6 months. Gradually they were able to cope up with that for which the workers and other staff of LAD must be appreciated.

Prior to this shifting to supported living, workers used to do a lot of work manually but now with the advancement in technology, we have electronic recording systems, electronic communication, etc. which has reduced the work load but increased their efficiency. The training provided to them for adapting such advancements in technology, has been fruitful as they now fall into the category of highly skilled. Earlier the government had issues with the land provided to LAD and some issues are still in process to be resolved.

Thus, any change introduced in any organization leaves a impact on its service users, their families, workers, staff and also the management of the organization. So, before implementing any change, its impact on all the members of the organization must always be precedent in consideration. (Behan, 2008)

2.3 evaluation of overall impact of recent changes in health and social care

This new initiative by LAD has not only affected its service users and their families, but also its workers, staff and other members in the organization. Some impacts proved to be quite positive, others had a negative effect. So, an evaluation of these impacts needs to be presented.The service users had quite a lot of doubts about this new kind of living, but eventually within a period of 5-6 months, they very well adjusted with this new kind of environment. Some users of higher age are still in process to adapt to the new surroundings as it is taking a lot of time to make them feel comfortable with it. With more care and support by the workers and the staff, they will soon be in peace with the new business environment. Apart from that, this change has proved to be quite beneficial and fruitful for them as exposure to this new kind of environment has helped them in leading an improved quality of life along with better means. Various surveys, questionnaire and interviews were conducted to get this feedback from the service users and their families.

The impact on workers and other staff members has also been quite positive. The workers found opportunities in specialising and improving their skills with the help of various trainings provided to them for the new advancements in technology. This has not only reduced work load on them but diminished their manual work too. Highly skilled workers ultimately lead to better service provisions in the organization which in turn leads to an efficient working of the overall system. (Grol, 2013)

2.4 service responses to changes in health and social care

Various types of service responses are associated in accordance with the changes in health and social care provided within LAD. These responses can be related to the management, service users, staff and other members of the organization. Some of the service responses related to the shifting of LAD from residential care to supported living are explained below.

The management must take care of the leadership to facilitate change. This is needed in reference to guide the other members and staff of the organization towards efficient working to adopt the changes smoothly. If guidance is provided at initial level, it helps in achieving the desired goals within a short period of time. The management must encourage employee participation and help them achieve efficiency. Employees of the organization must be provided assistance at all times to improve the quality of their services.

The policies and procedures related to the changes in LAD must always be kept updated with the new amendments if there is need to implement any. For proficient working of the whole system of the organization, the regular updates are necessary to keep the members of the organization updated about the new policies and procedures so that they can work according to them.

It must also be taken care that the service users of the organization are involved at all stages as their support will always be needed at every point. The services are provided according to the users only. Hence, they must always be taken into consideration before taking any decision regarding implementing changes in the existing services. (Scribd, 2016)

Hence, appropriate service responses proposed to recent changes in LAD are also required in order to get the desired results that are in favour of the change.

Conclusion

To conclude, we can say that to implement any changes in any organization especially in case of health and social care such as Local Action for the Disabled corporation, also called as LAD, we need to look out for a lot of aspects, issues and strategies that can prove out to be successful not only from the management point of view, but also in terms of financial benefits and benefits associated with the service users, workers and other staff members of the organization. The organization properly implemented these strategies which is why it became the only successful organization in this field as all the past attempts made by other corporations couldn't achieve the desired goals.

References

Rutter, M. (2014) Factors that drive change in health and social care [Online]. Available at: https://prezi.com/ey-yv2f-fvuz/factors-that-drive-change-in-health-and-social-care/ (Accessed: 5 November 2016).
Bond, B. (2013) Strategies for Measuring Organization Change [Online]. Available at: http://www.smartpolicinginitiative.com/sites/all/files/SPI%20Measuring%20Change%20Webinar%20FINAL.pdf (Accessed: 5 November 2016).
Berwick, D., Nolan, T., Whittington, J. (2016) The Triple Aim: Care, Health and Cost [Online]. Available at: http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/27/3/759.short (Accessed: 5 November 2016).
Scribd. (2016) Facilitating Change in Health and Social Care [Online]. Available at: https://www.scribd.com/doc/247079906/unit-26-Facilitating-Change-in-health-and-social-care (Accessed: 6 November 2016).
Behan, D. (2008) High Impact Changes for Health and Social Care [Online]. Available at: http://www.telecarelin.org.uk/_library/High_Impact_Changes_For_Health_and_Social_Care.pdf (Accessed: 6 November 2016).
Grol, R. (2013) Improving patient care: the implementation of change in health care. John Wiley and Sons.
Grol, R. and et.al., (2013). Theories on implementation of change in healthcare. Improving Patient Care: The Implementation of Change in Health Care, Second Edition. Pp.18-39.