Care Home Staffing Model
Care Home Staffing Model
The Care Home Staffing Model (CHSM) is a tool that combines information on care homes, including care hours and residents' dependency to help inform staffing levels in care homes. The dependency of residents is measured using an augmented version of the IoRN. The augmented version was developed to reflect the higher dependency needs of care home residents. The tool is currently being tested in several partnership areas in Scotland.
The Care Home Staffing Model was developed as a partnership initiative between ISD, the Scottish Government Joint Future Unit (now Joint Outcomes Team), the Care Commission and COSLA with involvement from key stakeholders.
Further details are in the project leaflet.
The Project Background
This stakeholder report details the outcome of the development phase of the project to identify a way of better informing staffing levels in care homes. The aim of the Project was to determine if a modified Indicator of Relative Need (IoRN) could be used to 'weight' residents' needs according to their level of dependency and relate the weighted residents' needs overall to the hours of care staff in each home.
A more detailed Technical report is available.
The developed model has a potential to be used as a benchmarking resource for care staff levels and is likely to be of interest to both management and monitors of existing care homes and as a way of informing possible staff configurations in new homes. On an on-going basis it will allow care homes to keep a check on how their staffing levels might need to vary as residents needs change.
The revised questionnaire used in care homes provides more detail.
Demonstration Phase
The project has now entered a 'Demonstration Phase'. The aim of the Demonstration Phase is to test the model more extensively and discussions are in hand with several areas in Scotland that have expressed a willingness to act as 'demonstrator sites'. The National Care Home Contracting Group chaired by COSLA is acting as an expert reference group for the demonstration phase. It has representation from all the key stakeholders including the Care Commission who is supporting and will be fully involved in the next phase.
The demonstration phase of the project will involve working with commissioners, providers and regulators to test how the model is applied in "real life". The main objectives of the phase are as follows:
-
To set up demonstration sites under the auspices of the local authority involving a mix of care homes provided by local authority, voluntary and private agencies.
-
To test out the practical application of the model to demonstrate and evaluate its potential uses for commissioners, providers and regulators.
-
To consider options for quality assuring the information in the model.
Other contact
Peter Knight (Scottish Government)
This topic is part of the Health and Social Care Information Programme
Kathy McGregor
Printer friendly version
