The CQC requires care homes to have sufficient staff to ensure the safety of their residents. Care homes must demonstrate the method used to determine staffing levels, and failure to provide evidence of this may result in a downgrade for care providers.

This requirement is part of the CQC's Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs) aimed at assessing the safety of care homes.

We’re working hard to support care providers in tackling the staffing issues prevalent in adult social care with our dependency tool, DepenSys. This tool is part of our Connected Care Platform and helps maximise staffing in care homes, allowing care home managers to make data-led decisions on staff allocation based on their skill mix, levels and resident needs. 

By entering information about staff shifts and the number of available beds and evaluating resident dependency based on various factors, managers will be able to gain a comprehensive understanding of the staffing needs relative to their current situation. This will enable them to deliver a high standard of person-centred care using easily interpretable metrics such as skilled hours needed, day and night ratios, occupancy and more!  

The tool assists managers in making better decisions, which leads to greater attention and support for residents. It also enables homes to manage their staffing resources more effectively, allowing for more accurate fee forecasting based on resident needs and reducing unnecessary costs associated with agency workers.

DepenSys stands out in the sector for its innovative use of real-world data. It places residents and staff at the heart of care home wellbeing while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements for staffing levels. The data DepenSys provides empowers managers to make informed decisions, steering away from generic models that fail to account for the individual circumstances of a care home's community.