Evaluating the Impact of Change in Health & Social Care Services

This report examines the key factors driving changes in health and social care services, including legislative rules, economic conditions, technological advancements, and varying care needs. It discusses the challenges these changes bring to service users, organizations, and staff, such as adapting to new procedures, technologies, and record systems. The report also outlines strategies for measuring recent changes in health and social care, such as supervisor oversight, routine audits, and adherence to national and local policies. Furthermore, it evaluates the impact of these changes on service standards and delivery, emphasizing the importance of monitoring practices and gathering feedback from service users. The report concludes by suggesting appropriate service responses to ensure quality and satisfaction in health and social care settings. Desklib offers additional resources, including past papers and solved assignments, for students studying in this field.

Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Task 1.....................................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Key factors that drive changes in health and social care services................................................4
1.2 challenges that key factors of changes bring to health and social care services..........................5
Task 2.....................................................................................................................................................7
2.1 Strategies and criteria for measuring recent changes in health and social care..........................7
2.2 Impact of recent changes on health and social care according to set criteria.............................8
2.3 Evaluate the overall impact of change in health and social care.................................................9
2.4 Appropriate service responses to change in health and social care..........................................10
TASK 3..................................................................................................................................................12
Information pack.................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................14
References...........................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
With passing time, every health and social care work, as well as policies adopted, has to
undergo a lot of changes which work together for the betterment of all concerned person
with the organization and also the organization as a whole.These changes can be for legal or
political purposes; technology advancement, organizational changes or changes can be due
to cultural and demographic reasons. The main objective of this article is to understand the
factors that bring about changes in health and social care services.It is important to manage
new or changed policies as poor management leads to the negative and stressful
environment to work in. Further, this report includes strategies measuring recent changes;
the impact of changes in care services; key principle responsible for the change in social care
services. It also describes benefits of continual changes in health care policies to both
patients as well as employees.
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Task 1
1.1 Key factors that drive changes in health and social care services
Changes can be described as a transitional state from the present situation to future
desirable state; which everyone has to adapt irrespective of likings. Some people may take it
as a challenge and new opportunity for growth while others may doubt and develop a fear
of loss and come under stress. In general, people concerned are sensitive to minor changes
especially with regards to impact it has on routine activities; so it is the duty of authority in
concern to manage the way these changes are delivered so as to minimize any stressful
situation.The reason behind changes is mostly outsourced than within organization; in fact,
changes which come from within organization also has outside trigger factor (Stewart et al,
2015). Say, for instance, mostly the changes are related to legislation rules i.e. mostly
government keep on introducing some or the other plans in favour of rendering improved
health care services to people. For example, health and safety at work act, 1974 was
implemented due to increased cases of accident and incident during work. It also works for
ensuring health, safety and welfare of all employees. Not only health sector are subjected to
such changes but another department also faces changes in policies. Apart from health and
safety legislation also has an impact on employment, use of public funding for education
and housing of employees or other related services.
Care quality commission (CQC) analysis of an organization showed changes within
organisation usually occur due to increased demand for improved standards of health care
services like whenever a new disease is introduced, demand for changes in existing system
arises. This condition in turn arises due to insufficient resources to deal with present or new
situation. Economy also leads to changes. All services like public or private or charity based
health care services are affected by economic conditions. Like during economic crises, cost-
effective alternative methods are used for rendering services. So in order to deliver quality
services to their patients and also to maintain number of employees working it becomes
important for an organization to bring about changes in health care and other policies in
effective manner. In addition, the introduction of advanced technologies also demand
changes in health care policies (Blais et al, 2015). For example, it an organization wants to or
is in need of installing newer diagnostic or procedural equipments then changes has to be
made in existing system, skills and knowledge of their doctors and care providers regarding
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the same (Glasby and Dickinson, 2014). Also, sometimes varying care needs of individual
demand changes in health policies.Like in present case scenario, sunshine care hospital
which looks after disabled people was not able to meet demands of its people with respect
to quality food, hygiene, progressive treatment strategies, emergency services etc. All these
lead to bad services and reputation of organization. So, in an all, it can be said that with time
factors demanding changes should be analyzed through various techniques such as SWOT
(identifying internal factors) or PEST (identifying external factors such as political, economic,
social, technological) analysis and accordingly effective changes should be made.
1.2 challenges that key factors of changes bring to health and social care
services
Key factors determining changes bring a lot of challenges to implement the same so as to
provide best health and social care services.These challenges are faced by basically the
service users, organization itself and related staff. Everyone has their own level of
challenges; for example staff associated has to face changes regarding admission procedure
of patient, investigation rules, insurance policies, discharge procedures etc. Next, if any
procedure or service is in high demand then also sometimes receiver faces a lot of
challenges while adopting new rules or policies and also they have to wait for their turn
which may cause a certain amount of dissatisfaction. It is because of the above mentioned
reason, organization responsibility towards management of services, motivation of patients
regarding changes and satisfaction level increases. It is the duty of authority concern to help
patients and their related families and also the staff regarding changes so as to develop
harmony in working which help in maintaining positive atmosphere and efficiency level. For
this, prior notice can be given to everyone so that they are well prepared in advance for
future changes (Powell et al, 2015). Then, with introduction of newer technologies
challenges are being faced by staff over there in understanding the usage of same. Say for
instance, if robotic surgery is involved in treatment strategies then it is important to
understand its functioning and usability which again is the biggest challenge. Very first
priority regarding introduction of new technologies should be explanation of health benefits
which it will bring to patients as well as ease of doing work by care provider. Such new
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technologies also bring on accuracy, so should be adopted by staff as well as workers
irrespective of various changes implemented (Glasby, 2017).
The new disease is also considered a key factor for changes in health care services. With the
increase in demand regarding same, difficulty level for managers or concerned authority and
employees increases as they have to manage a number of patients suffering from this new
disease.For this, even effective training to staff regarding new disease is also important.
Further organization and staff in concern may also face difficulty with respect to old aged
people and challenges individuals as it is difficult to make them understand regarding the
changes and new policies which would benefit them. Also, with an increase in cases of old
age people and mentally or physically challenged peoplemanagement becomes difficult and
challenging because of their varying needs and demand. In addition, variations in electronic
record system lead to different challenges faced by staff, service users as well as an
organization; as initially uploading and maintaining records with a change in the system may
be difficult and one might miss records. Also, staff and health care professionals may face a
challenge in adapting to the new system and may need to put up extra time and effort to
understand the same (Cummings and Worley, 2014.)
Although the change in system brings in lots of difficulties and challenges which is
unavoidable but it has varying benefits too.So, service users, professionals, staff, the
authority should look into the positive aspect of these changes and cooperate in
implementing the same. Even, an organization might have to put in great amount of time,
effort and money to make everyone understand regarding changes and also to give the
training to adapt them.
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Task 2
2.1 Strategies and criteria for measuring recent changes in health and
social care
Various approaches for measuring the changes in health and social care can be adopted as
in given case at sunshine health care the changes are required to be made and its
measurement can be done by following methods. Supervisor can be appointed to look after
the keen and detailed care services provided and practices adopted at the care centre and
to report in case of any misconduct and ill quality services. Routine audit in form of
inspections can be made by the agencies that can measure the effectiveness and the quality
of the changes carried out in the care home. It is easy to implement changes but as time
passes the old methods and practices seep in and make their way in that causes failure to
the change strategy developed for better quality services. Every organization has a
p[articular care standard as NHS and CQC are authorized to check the quality and quality
inspections at the sunshine care home can be carried by these bodies to ensure standard
services and maintenance of changes implemented. These approaches will help in
measuring that the changes that are applied are maintained well and incorporated in
current practices or not (Spear, 2016). The inspections will provide strict and thorough
check for the changes being implemented and help the strategy to work effectively. In the
given case it is seen that the quality of services is not met after many changes being
implemented so to minimize the error and enhance the effectiveness of the changes
implemented at Sunshine care home the strategies like a national and local policy
formulated framework should be provided for the care home to work accordingly. This
framework that has legislative and regulatory approaches as per the quality assurance Acts
and code of practices will help in maintaining the standards of the service quality and its
maintenance. Sticking to the protocol and working according to the policies makes it
beneficial for the service user as it has better recovery rates and standard service feedbacks.
In given case, the quality of food, laundry and other services is not adequate and ben
reported few time at a care home in spite of changes provided the results are not
satisfactory. The care home should strategies the measuring of changes in the care home by
using protocols and legislation such as the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006 and the
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COSH and RIDDOR that helps to standardize the protocol and working of the care home in a
way that the food quality and service quality is assured even the safety of the individual
from the cross contamination and unhygienic practices is prevented.
2.2 Impact of recent changes on health and social care according to set
criteria
Effectiveness of changes implemented in health and social care has a huge impact on overall
service standards and delivery in healthcare. Various aspects in health and social care are to
be analysed to find out the impact of effectiveness of changes in the system as per the set
criteria. As given in Sunshine care home the services were not properly given as food
quality, service quality, laundry services etc. were reported to be non-satisfactory. The
effective changes improve the quality of services and therefore provide satisfied customers
and service users. The feedback from the service user even in form of referrals and
questionnaire is an effective way to measure the effectiveness of the changes made in
health and social care settings. The more referrals the service user gives the more it indicate
the service quality and satisfaction of the customers. At Sunshine carehome the changes
areto be implemented regarding various services and health and social care issues that are
not adequately delivered in past. These changes should be monitored for effective
outcomes and it can be done by closemonitoring of the practices taking place at the care
home by the authorities. Interviewing the patients for the changes felt in standards and
quality of services (Burke, 2017). Other approaches include comparing the past and present
standards and quality of services the outcomes should be positive for the impact of care to
be effective in regard to the health and social care. The comparison of the practices and
outcomes from the other competitor organizations as a benchmarking system is also an
effective way to know the impact of changes in health and social care. At the Sunshine care
home the changes are to be implemented and feedbacks should be taken from employees,
user and consumers. Positive feedback and referrals indicates good impact of the changes
whereas the negative feedback and outcomes indicate bad impact of the changes at health
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and social care. New trained staff is willing to join the organization than it is a good impact
of changes at the care home and need to have trained and skilled staff to the care home is
crucial to implement and get better positive feedbacks of the changes provided.
2.3 Evaluate the overall impact of change in health and social care
It is been seen that the individual approaches of evaluating the changes were not proper
and incorporated the duplication of facts and data. As done by the NHS authorities and
nurse at times. The Sunshine care home has managed to evaluate the effectiveness of the
changes implemented by joint working of different agencies and health care professionals
for better results. This process included that the organization previously focused on
maintaining the standards and quality of care at care home and for this routine inspections
were carried but were not effective the use of multi-agency system for the working of the
organization was thought to be an effective method for evaluation and it resulted in better
outcomes. As the inspection and evaluation was carried, it showed various loops in the
practices and the scope of improvement in areas of food, laundry and some health and
social care services.The joint committee helped in evaluating the errors in the practices and
the chief cause of it to be the untrained and unskilled staff at the care home. The
organization works for disabled individuals and the need for a protocol and legislation for
service delivery and care pattern is important and is implemented that will enhance the
positive feedback from the consumer and employees both. The overall profitability and
revenue of the organization will increase as the services and the outcome of changes
monitored will have a good impact on its working (Etkind et al, 2015). The introduction of
agencies and bodies such as NHS and CQC will help developing the quality of care and a
fixed protocol for enhanced services at Sunshine care home. Employees may expect a
workload as the changes implemented are not easy to be made habitual and old practices
seems better in some cases so the employees may have issues regarding management of
change in health and social care. The customer support services should be increased and
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routine feedbacks should be taken to improve the services and reduce any errors and
problems appearing at the care home. The staff should be replaced and skilled and trained
staff should be recruited to enhance the efficacy of change that is implemented and desired
for. The strength of the changes to be implemented at care home includes better service
delivery and goals to enhance customer satisfaction and weakness includes the ill-trained
staff that may not be able to implement and maintain the changes as desired in health and
social care (Al-Abri and Al-Balushi, 2014).
2.4 Appropriate service responses to change in health and social care
The facilitation of changes at the Sunshine care home is important by the management
team of the care home as it will provide better opportunities to facilitate and implement
desired changes. The response of the individual at health and social care according to
different care needs and aspects is to be evaluated by the responses towards the changed
services. The leadership process is essential in getting the better responses from employees.
Whenever the changes are implemented the employees start to have grudges and problems
against these desired organizational changes as it tries and change the working diameter
and working style of them that they are used to form a long time. A proper democratic
leadership pattern is required to enhance employee participation and avoid such instances
of non-cooperation regarding the changes in services and practices. Communication plays
an important role in health and social care success and effective communication strategies
will help increase the service quality and customer satisfaction but at the same time the
training to the employees regarding these new strategies of communication and interaction
should be administered to provide better facilitation of change in health care.
implementation of policies and procedures is important while facilitating changes in health
and social care but providing the employee friendly policy and going easy on them will help
in prevention of overall restrain from the employees due to change (Hayes, 2018).The
decision making process is essential and for better service standards the overall decision
making process should involve the participation of employees. A link and all possible
complains and feedbacks from the employees and user to be taken by the management
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team and the leaders should hear and fully act according to the needs of employees and the
user of healthcare services at Sunshine care home. As the care home deals with disabled
patients the need of the families and feedback should be taken care of to deliver patient
and family centred care. Different responses are provided by the user and positive one
indicated the good changes in the overall organization working.
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3.1 The key principles of change include
various factors and different theorist gave
different steps for changes to be
implemented in health and social care.
according to Kotter's eight-step change
model. The transformation of an
organizational functioning by facilitating
changes includes advocating this 8 step
model of John Kotter that includes-
1. Establishing a sense of urgency
2. Guiding a coalition
3. Develop a vision and strategy
4. Communicate the change vision
5. Empower broad base action
6. Generate short-term wins
7. Consolidate gains to produce more
changes
8. Anchor changes in the organizational
culture (Pollack & Pollack, 2015.)
Applying this model while facilitating change
at the Sunshine care home will require the
management team to identify the urgency of
the change and hold a meeting with various
department and employees to discuss it.
When the employees and all the team
members understand the urgency of need for
change in the organization the management
would choose some efficient employees to
act as leader of their respective departments
to facilitate the change process. The other
step involves creating a goal and
communicating this goal to the other team
members for support and efficient working.
Short term wins and appreciations should be
managed to encourage the employees and
organizational working. The gains should be
used further in order to find more evaluated
improvement loops and improve services
more and the changes that works effectively
should be anchored or gelled to the
organization policy an framework.
Leavitt’s model of change
This model explains that four factors of success depend
heavily on the factors of change management and he
demonstrated it as the vice versa process as each factor
influencing another and creating a diamond model of change
management. The factors described in the model are
structure, technology, managerial tasks and people. In given
case the Sunshine carehomehas various tasks that aimto
provide basic and health services to the user, taking care of
the patients and their families and providing adequate
fulfilment of their needs. Secondary tasks include safety and
security of every individual including patients and employees
at the care home, cleaning, hygiene maintenance, quality
services etc. the changes implemented will not change what is
required to be done but will change the style of doing these
tasks. People involved are management team, employees,
patients and their families. The changes should be managed in
a manner that it should not affect any individual in a negative
manner but keep every aspect in a positive tie up. Structure of
the organization should be changed as per the requirement
and leadership roles to be managed and advocated for
facilitating change. Technology should be administered in a
proper way and use of software and record keeping apps
should be done to ensure better services and lower the
workload for employees (Al-Haddad and Kotnour, 2015).
The manager of change who will manage and plan the
changes at the Sunshine care home has to keep several factors
in mind and facilitate the changes that are desired. The quality
of care and services is the main aim to be implemented as a
vision of change in the organization. The proper planning for
this vision and aim can be done by proper selection of
management model and following it accordingly. It also
includes use of better communication services, information
technology software, use of feedback and consultations and
enforcement for change, reconditioning of the employees that
means routine reminders for monitoring of changes
implements and managing the fears, anxiety and ways to
develop the staff of the care home by proper training and
education sessions for the same. Proper planning and proper
management of the model of change is essential to get better
and effective outcomes. Proper planning also reduces
restrictions and resistance from the employees and enhances
better employee participation in the process.
TASK 3
Information pack