ARC - Age Reform Coalition

Welcome to ARC – Age Reform Coalition. A unique combination of third sector organisations working together to support the aging population by actively raising the standard of care. Here you will see all different organisations involved, their different contributions and aims overall. In addition you can see our affiliated companies who we reccomend to the wider health and social care sector. 

We speak to each company directly and discuss our vision and outcomes to ensure we are working together towards the same goal. We approach and welcome approaches by external companies to openly share thoughts and visions to ensure we are not being duplicated. 

We at Nightingales Army want to work alongside professional bodies who support the health and social care system, utilizing the current accessible training, tools, knowledge, advice and skills available. Promoting them for their contribution to the system, their job role available and raising awareness of the services they provide and bringing the correct ones together under one roof, each one supporting the next. 

ARC: Age Reform Coalition

What is ARC?

Hourglass launched ARC to work in collaboration with other third sector organisations, to scrutinise, review and lobby for changes in age related legislation. Using strength in numbers and shared resources, ARC campaigns for the improvement of professional standards, employee rights and to develop a common safer ageing agenda. Read more below:

ARC Members

Chaired by Hourglass, the other organisations that form ARC are:

Bettering The Care Home System (BCHS)

BCHS was set up by Pat Taylor after experiencing the terrible treatment of his mother. During COVID19, she moved care homes 9 times in 18 months, caught COVID twice, was sectioned and broke her wrist. Researching the state of the care home system opened his eyes and BCHS was created. 

BCHS objectives are to lobby the government for clearer transparency in care homeownership, where it should be mandated that care home groups and care home owners disclose exactly where their income is spent and how much leaks out of the investment in front-line care.

Nightingales Army

Nightingales Army is a community interest company, set up by two health care assistants with the vision to actively raise the standard of care. Set up in 2019, their focus is on rebuilding quality training within the health and social care sector. Founders Elizabeth Cox and Felicity Miles, witnessed the crisis in social care around recruiting, retaining, recognising and properly rewarding healthcare assistants. Staff turnover in the sector is only exceeded by the hospitality sector, and the standard of care is hampered by the failure to introduce standardised practical ‘hands-on’ accredited training.

In the summer of 2019, seeing the impact the crisis in social care was having on the standards of care being delivered, the low morale among healthcare assistants, and how unprepared the UK was to meet the future increase in demand for social care from an ageing population, the idea was born to recruit and train an ‘army of future carers’ – and to re-brand them as the ‘Nightingales”. 

Say So

Founders of whistleblowing organisation Say So, Paul Adams and Shaun Keep, have a safeguarding and criminal investigation background that spans decades. Their experience of failures in care, has time and again, been as a result of a lack of confidence and trust in internal ‘speak up’ policy, lack of confidence in the current reporting process and a fear of consequences should staff report issues. Say So seeks to support the sector and create the conditions that give staff the confidence to report.

To mark the launch of this collaboration, Hourglass will host a series of webinars, focusing on the three areas covered by the ARC member organisations.

If you would like to take part, or would like to learn more, click here

Affiliates

My care matters.

We met Zoe through networking. We were introduced during the WSCC Community and Managers Forum – November 2020. We loved Zoe’s vision straight away, she has the same ideas and passion as us, we couldn’t wait to help share the My Care Matters tools and advice service. 

Zoe has provided us with an introduction video for your viewing – Thank you Zoe.

We promote the use of my care matters flip charts. These charts are beneficial to care providers and their team because they provide a clear, brief understanding of the individual in the care setting, they can be a line of support for agency staff who are unable to access care plans. They can give information that would be otherwise unknown, which can be used as a conversation starter, that can benefit both service users and staff well-being.

We promote the use of my care matters online tool. where you can create or retrieve a profile.

As a member of the public you can prepare a profile of your non-medical information so that if you need care in hospital, care home or at home, staff are aware of your needs and preferences.
As a care provider you can prepare profiles for your residents / clients to ensure their needs and preferences are available to all staff, and easily share information if they need a stay in hospital.
As a POA you can access a  patient’s profile on the my care matters page. Click on the link below.

Embed Mycarematters into the day-to-day life of your wards to help staff deliver truly person-centred care.

We promote the use of the my future care handbook. By providing clear and concise information with practical tasks, action lists and forms to complete, the Handbook offers a gentle and unthreatening way to start a really important conversation. After all, despite some people’s belief to the contrary, talking about it really doesn’t make it more likely to happen! 

The Unappreciated Carer

At the very beginning of our journey we were fortunate enough to link with Adam of ‘The Unappreciated Carer’ Adam provides pod casts and free impartial advice to care workers, he has previous experience working in care and understands what we are trying to achieve through our journey. Together we started a series of podcasts and invited other affiliates to join us to speak about health care matters and solutions. Adam regularly updates his own videos on his website and YouTube. 

Adams website states – “There are thousands of positive care stories. They happen every single day, but only the few negative ones will be told.” 

“We are an outlet for the great care stories. To show the real value care workers bring to the lives of the people we care for.”

Nightingales Army – We feel it is extremely important to share the positive stories within health care and we promote Adams initiative and invite you to his website to view his work. Here you will find podcasts, YouTube videos and more.

We also thank Adam for giving us the chance to make a series of video with him, we invite you to watch them on The unappreciated carer site.

DSD Web

DSD Web is “the UK’s premier resource for free study guides in the health and social care sector.” DSD’s aim is to assist those doing a qualification to have access to knowledge, skills and understanding of the care workforce. As care assistants who have undertaken NVQ’s within the work place we have personally used this site for research and answers to questions. It is easy to navigate and clearly laid out to assist you in your answer search.

DSDWEB states – “DSDWEB is built on the ethos that high-quality information about best practice in the care sector should be freely available and not hidden behind paywalls or expensive textbooks that many carers on close to minimum wage can ill-afford. All too often, information related to health and social care can be obfuscated or ambiguous making it difficult to locate, understand and comprehend. We strive to provide accurate information presented in a way that easy to digest so that care staff can provide the best possible support to their clients.“

Nightingales Army – We intend to utilize DSD’s potential by guiding all Nightingales undertaking our training to the site to use the knowledge available. This is one of our first steps in uniting the correct companies under one roof to provide standardized accessible knowledge. As care assistants who have used DSD to complete units on NVQ and research for own self reflection or personal development we can verify DSD web is factual clear and follows the curriculum laid out by the education board. 

Would you like to feature on our website? Contact us today and we will make arrangements to speak to you.

Click here

Considering something new?

Are you a health care professional who wants to try something new? We can offer you extra training, in your area or maybe you want to try something different? Have you considered progressing? Becoming a trainer?

You can contact one of our advisors today to speak about the training you currently hold, what we can offer to support your growth or finding you a new path to explore. Look at all the different areas you can be a health care assistant in, and how to progress further.

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