May 2010--Research from the University of Warwick and the University of West England is calling for social care home workers to be trained in basic clinical nursing skills to meet the changing needs of residents as they get older.

The report, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, also recommends a new registration system with formal qualifications for social care staff.

Professor Ala Szczepura from Warwick Medical School and Deirdre Wild from the University of the West of England, Bristol led the study, which has evaluated the introduction of enhanced care for older people in three types of residential home.

The report follows in the tracks of the recent White Paper: Building the National Care Service. The team compared a voluntary sector home, a privately-owned home and a local authority-owned home which all introduced ‘enhanced residential care’, based on developing new type of worker roles.

Extensive fieldwork was carried out over three years and a total of 108 interviews were undertaken with residents and relatives, care staff, home managers and senior managers.

Survey questionnaires were also sent out to all staff, focus groups were conducted with care staff, residents and relatives and home managers and activity data was collected across the three residential homes and a comparator nursing home.

In England, more than 18,000 care homes currently provide places for more than 453,000 residents.  Six out of ten places are in residential homes with no nursing staff employed on-site. Three quarters of residential homes are privately owned. Residential homes employ 230,000 care workers and senior care workers and this figure is set to rise with an ageing population. 

Professor Szczepura said: “Our research shows that the future care of older people is likely to be reliant on extending the spectrum of care provided by residential homes. As residents age, their health needs inevitably increase with nearly half of residents in the homes we studied classed as needing the intervention of a registered nurse on at least a daily basis. In such cases, if appropriate care cannot be provided on site, residents may find they are admitted to hospital or moved to a nursing home when this is not absolutely necessary. 

"The development of a cadre of new role carers would enable these homes to provide high quality care as residents’ needs increase.  This could save the NHS money as well as improving older people’s quality of life. The new coalition Government’s plans includes a commitment to addressing the future funding of long-term care; our research provides valuable information for this.”

Professor Szczepura said the research findings supported the view that care staff can be trained in clinical skills so that good basic health and nursing care can be delivered in a residential home setting with the support of community nurses. This needs a strong relationship between health and social care which ensures that care staff know when and how to seek more specialist clinical support.