A collaboration of care homes in the local area of East Suffolk aims to improve the health and wellbeing of the local area.
East Suffolk Forum is a newly formed partnership between care homes and commissioners which hopes to be able to draw upon pools of shared local knowledge and best practice in order to provide the best experience for service users. It is hoped that the forum will contribute to driving up standards for the local area of East Suffolk with its 104 care homes.
This initiative is a step in the right direction with an understanding that each different local area will have different challenges and pressures which are unique to the area in question. This may prove to be a helpful template which other local areas can follow in order to develop a shared understanding of the local context and quality of services with providers.
CQC’s new strategy highlights the need to work closer with providers and meetings with bodies which speak on behalf of localised areas such as the East Suffolk Forum could prove useful.
Within a geographical area care homes will often experience similar pressures and demands on their services which will be unique to their local area and from which they can learn from and improve.
