Analyzing Factors Facilitating Change in Health & Social Care

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This essay explores the factors that drive change in the health and social care (HSC) sector, focusing on the experiences of elderly individuals adapting to changes such as the Care Act 2014. It identifies internal factors like organizational culture and external factors such as political, economic, social, and technological influences. The essay evaluates the challenges these factors present, including political and legal issues, social and economic factors, and technological hurdles. It also proposes strategies for measuring the impact of recent changes in HSC services, considering organizational efficiency, cost, staff satisfaction, and service user satisfaction. The analysis covers both positive and negative impacts of change, such as enhanced working conditions, reduced response times, and potential challenges related to staff relocation and job uncertainty. Finally, the essay explains key principles of change management, planning processes, and monitoring strategies within the HSC context. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
.............................................................................................................. 1
TASK 1
.............................................................................................................................2
ESSAY
.............................................................................................................................2
1.1 EXPLAIN THE KEY FACTORS THAT BRING CHANGE IN SERVICES OF

HEALTH CARE
............................................................................................................2
1.2 EVALUATING THE CHALLENGES THAT CHIEF FACTORS OF CHANGE

BRING TO HSC SERVICES
......................................................................................... 4
TASK 2
.............................................................................................................................6
ESSAY
.............................................................................................................................6
2.1 PLAN STRATEGY AND CRITERIA FOR MEASUREMENT OF CHANGES IN

HSC
.............................................................................................................................. 6
2.2 MEASURE THE EFFECT OF RECENT CHANGES ON HSC SERVICES

AGAINST SET CRITERIA
............................................................................................7
2.3 EVALUATION OF THE OVERALL IMPACT OF CHANGE IN HSC
.......................8
2.4 PROPOSING SERVICE RESPONSE TO THE CHANGES IN THE HSC

SERVICES
................................................................................................................... 8
TASK 3
...........................................................................................................................10
ESSAY
...........................................................................................................................10
3.1 EXPLAINING KEY PRINCIPLES OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT
.........................10
3.2 EXPLAINING HOW CHANGES IN HSC ARE PLANNED
....................................11
3.3 ASSESSING HOW TO MONITOR THE CHANGES IN HSC SERVICES
............11
CONCLUSION
............................................................................................................... 13
REFERENCES
............................................................................................................... 14
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Figure 1: Macro and Microenvironment............................................................................ 4
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INTRODUCTION
It is important in the health and social care sector to gain an understanding of the

factors that lead to change in the care services and the practices that lead towards the

evaluation and facilitation of change. The change process commencement fosters the

transformation of the business operations and the business strategies. The assignment

has taken the case study where the elderly people who receive the social care and

support are continually facing the problem of adapting to the change like the enactment

of the Care Act 2014. It has been witnessed that in the study of Nuffield Trust’s Home

and the King’s Trust, a total of 4 authority sites have taken part of which the outcomes

reveal the estimation of a gap of 1 million workers by the end of the year 2037 caused

due to low payments offered to them. Considering all the factors of the case study, an

essay will be presented highlighting the factors fostering change in the healthcare

services followed by another essay depicting the current changes in the health and the

social care series. Lastly, an essay will illustrate the key principles of change

management process.

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TASK 1
ESSAY

Introduction

The latest researches have revealed that the healthcare industry is witnessing some

major changes once every 3 years. Along with the major ones, there are some small

changes occurring at frequent time intervals. The process of change is the process of

moving out of the current state and slipping through the transition stage into the future

ones. The changes occurring in the firms have an influence on the operations of the

firm. Therefore, the health care providers must quickly respond to the external

environment and pay attention towards the future changes.

Discussion

1.
1 EXPLAIN THE KEY FACTORS THAT BRING CHANGE IN SERVICES OF HEALTH
CARE

The old people receiving the care services are being affected by a large number of

aspects that can be categorized as internal and external. The main aim of the

healthcare service providers is to provide the best quality of the services both medical

aid and social services so that their recovery takes less time. The practices followed in

the organizations need to be transformed for providing new ideology to the workforce

and improve their working skills (Freeman, 2010). The internal environment complies

with the factors, the people, events and the systems and conditions occurring inside the

firm under the control of the firm. The factors are-

The mission statement of the firm or the change in the core strategy
The culture of the organization
Leadership style
Mergers and acquisitions
Business process re-engineering
The external environmental factor comprises the events that occur outside of the firm

and lead to change within the organizations and also are not under the control of the

company. The factors are-

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Customers
Economy
Political aspects
Competition
Technological changes
Social Situations
The environmental scanning is done in order to monitor the forces or the factors that

may bring change in the organization. The factor that brings change is being described

as-

Political and legal
- the factors like the change in government can foster change along
with the occurrence of the funding issues (DAILY, et al. 2014). There may be some

modernization agenda like the reformation of the workforce, the improvement of the

financial performance, the enhancement of quality and delivery and opening the choices

and competition.

Figure
1: Macro and Micro environment
Source: [
Chiplunkar, 2011]
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Cultural and demographic- the ageing population along with the lifestyle factors of the
people drive change in the firms. Along with this, the needs of the minorities and the

ethnic communities and the public perceptions that keep on changing generate new

human needs. The news media involvement also fosters some changes within the firms

(Lecca, et al. 2014).

Technological factors
- the introduction of assistive technology and the new
information technology systems foster change to be introduced in the health and social

care firms. The advent of electronic communication also has brought the organizations

to adopt the new methods of communication along with the technology of electronic

bookkeeping.

1.2 EVALUATING THE CHALLENGES THAT CHIEF FACTORS OF CHANGE BRING

TO HSC SERVICES

There are a number of challenges that the factors leading to change faces in the health

and social care environment. These are some of the legal and the political issues, the

social aspects of the environmental or the economic factors. Summarizing the factors,

the PEST analysis is the best approach to identify the challenges.

Political and legal challenges
- These may be challenges that are presented due to
the change in the political environment of the country like the change in the government

at the local, national or the global level. The enactment of certain legislation like the

health and social care act 2013 that was formed for making changes in the public health

systems in the United Kingdom (Davies, 2013). The major challenge in this was the

maintenance along with the development of the workforce that is highly skilled and

motivated devoted completely to public welfare.

Social challenges-
these are the change in the demographic trends of the place along
with the changing preferences of the people. Also, the social values of the population

differ from place to place along with their change in the attitude toward work.

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Ecological challenges- the emission of toxic materials and the hazard prevention are
the serious challenges for the healthcare firms presented by the change. Some other

are the environmental concerns and the regs like the GM foods.

Technological challenges-
With the changes brought in the healthcare settings, the
technological changes are presented like
the rise in the costs of the computing, the
resistance of the workforce to adopt the new technological changes and lack of training

sessions for the workforce etc (Heart and Kalderon, 2013).

Economic challenges
- these include the economic aspects like the change in growth
patterns of the economy and an increase in the competition with the other firms that

lead to resistance to adapt to the change.
The change in the taxation policies and the
fluctuation of the prices of the raw materials may also be a major factor that can

become a challenge.

Conclusion

The essay has covered the aspects that have brought some change in the healthcare

settings which cover the external and internal environmental factors, also, the

challenges that the factors introduce also have been highlighted.

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TASK 2
ESSAY

Introduction

The essay will comprise of the strategy development for measurement of the current

changes in a healthcare environment. There are some of the negative as well as

positive impacts of the changes and need to be evaluated. The service responses to

change in the HSC are significant to propose so that they can be appropriately

measured.

Discussion

2.1 PLAN STRATEGY AND CRITERIA FOR MEASUREMENT OF CHANGES IN HSC

The measurement of the current and recent changes in the health and the social care

services are measured with the help of the following strategy-

One of the noteworthy steps is the collection of data about the present strategies and

the work criteria. The data is gathered by conducting surveys, organizing interviews and

group discussions etc. Also, it is important for the health and social care firm to make

sure that its employees follow the given criteria and the rules and regulations so as to

avoid any impartiality in treatment and unethical conduct. Also, the firm must plan and

enforce some new rules and regulations for preserving the effectiveness of the provided

services (Marmot, et al. 2010).

The strategy formation is further accompanied by a measurement of the change which

can be assisted by analyzing the previously collected information with the help of

primary and secondary methods of data collection. In the process of change

measurement, it will also comprise of the evaluation of the job performance of the

employees in the firm (Grol, et al. 2013). The performance appraisal program will

measure the work quality and services provided by the staff to the care users. Also, the

competitiveness in the healthcare department needs to be investigated as a part of the

strategy.

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The performance measurement of the employees also comprise of the aspects like
analyzing the individual’s behavior and their work inclinations, demographical factors,

independence level life indicators quality, ranking scale measurement, stability and

internal consistency and cost and benefit etc. these aspects that analyze the

performance of the individuals also serve as a criteria for measuring the recent change

in the healthcare and social care environment.

2.2 MEASURE THE EFFECT OF RECENT CHANGES ON HSC SERVICES AGAINST

SET CRITERIA

The organisational ability to adopt the change and adjust with the change relies upon

the degree of the complexity of change. The change process affects the healthcare

settings that provide social care to the elderly people in the following manner-

Organisational efficiency and utility
are affected by the change in the services
provided by the HSC firms. The efficiency is concerned with the satisfaction level of the

users of the care services and the organisational efficiency is the ability of the firms to

utilize the resources per unit of production (Best, et al. 2012).

Cost and response time
are the aspects that are on a regular basis influenced by the
change thus demonstrating a strong association. The slow-paced tasks lose stream

while the fast-paced change process overpowers all the other components of the

organisational change. Ample time and availability of resources are required by the

radical changes as compared to the changes that are incremental (Drummond, et al.

2015).

Staff satisfaction
is another factor that gets affected by the change process as the
relocation of the services causes the change of the orthodox roles and duties of the

employees. Many of the challenges that affect the psychology of staff like facing

difficulty in implementation of changes, the threat of job uncertainty and lack of

competency may be introduced (Rossi, et al. 2012).

Service user satisfaction
is being greatly impacted by the change. The effect of the
change is unintentional in some situations like the users not satisfied with a service due

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to their cultural or religious constraints etc. These situations may also take some of the
positive forms in some of the cases.

2.3 EVALUATION OF THE OVERALL IMPACT OF CHANGE IN HSC

The process of change brings with it some of the positive as well as some negative

impacts. Among the impacts, the positive include the enhancement in the working

criteria of employees, the reduction in the response and waiting time, rates of referrals

being positively impacted and the cost-benefit provisioning.

One of the significant effects is the cost-benefit observed through the good performance

of the care workers to achieve good results and therefore the cost to service ratio can

be balanced provisioning advantage to the firm. Also, the enhancement of the level of

satisfaction of the staff increases the rate of retention and also fosters the augmentation

of the skills of the experienced professionals (Brett, et al. 2014).

The contentment of the facility users with the services provided by the firm relies on the

flow of the change process depict that the advent of new technological changes in the

healthcare settings may result into increase in the reliability of the care users on the

firms. On the other hand, the announcement of any new policies can confine them from

using some of the advanced services. the policy of referral of the departments of the

healthcare settings assist in beholding good relations between the members of staff and

is a positive sign for the betterment of the firm (Stoddart and Evans, 2017).

Some of the negative impacts include the resistance of the employees to adapt to the

change which may result in the employees’ migration to other firms or the lack of skilled

labour. Also, the change process may be sometimes cost more to the firms thus they

need to keep a check on the financial data and the reserves of the resources.

2.4 PROPOSING SERVICE RESPONSE TO THE CHANGES IN THE HSC SERVICES

In the HSC services, many strategies are being used in order to evaluate the changes

and measure the efficiency. The changes are to be implemented in an appropriate

manner which in any case is not done with full accurateness and efficiency, need a

backup plan according to the requirements so as to provide an advantage to the

stakeholders of the health and the social care firms. The feedback and reviews from

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the service users and their family and well-wishers are effectively utilized in the
collection of the qualitative data and the quantitative data. This is done in order to

assess the response of the people from whom the data is collected. This helps in the

formation of the strategies that can result to be efficient in catering development and

overall growth in the healthcare organizations. There are several service responses that

can be proposed such as-

A good approach to leadership can be developed by conducting the analysis of
the structure of the firm which further provides the ease of fostering change

(Currie and Lockett, 2011)

The policies and several other procedures can be updated as an integral part of
the change which is a significant aspect in the transformation of the firm

The employees can be encouraged to take part in the company’s activities by
introducing favourable policies and benefits like recognition programs and

rewards and incentives for good performance of the employees.

The care users can also be involved in all stages of the change process so that
they are well aware of the changes taking place

Conclusion

In the essay, the key factors of the changes in the services of HSC have been

highlighted
. Along with this, the numbers of strategies have been made followed by the
measurement of changes (Aveyard, 2014). Furthermore, the overall impact of the

change shows that there change impacts the stakeholders and the firm altogether both

in a positive and in a negative aspect.

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