N85. Staff Retention

Policy Statement

{{org_field_name}} aims to be fully compliant with current staffing regulations. It carefully monitors and reviews its staffing complement and turnover and terms and conditions of service to ensure that it is able to retain staff who are of the required calibre to provide high quality care and to enhance the practice of these members of staff.

This policy should be read and used in relation to other staffing policies, including those that address terms and conditions of service and working practices, and particularly:

Staff Qualities and Qualifications
Safe Staff Recruitment and Selection
Staff Supervision
Staffing Levels and Rotas in Care Homes (if relevant)
Staff Training and Development.

To comply with its registration requirements, {{org_field_name}} is committed to:

ensuring that staffing levels, both in terms of numbers and skills, are appropriate for the number of patients being cared for and to meet their assessed needs
providing good continuity of care by making sure that its staff work as teams and that they have good teamwork
developing effective communication between team members
new staff are always well supervised before they are assessed as competent to work without direct supervision on any regulated activity
ensuring that staff are always well briefed to meet patients’ daily needs and to respond appropriately to the different care situations that arise
working closely with other carers, professionals and agencies involved in {{org_field_name}} provision.

{{org_field_name}}’s staffing complement and levels continue to be based on regular systematic reviews and assessments of its staffing needs.

Principles of the Staffing Policy

All staff have clearly defined job descriptions.
All staff are expected to shadow other members of staff during their induction period to better understand their own and others’ roles and responsibilities.
All staff job descriptions are linked to achieving patients’ individual goals as set out in {{org_field_name}} user plan.
Staff are made familiar, and are expected to comply, with the respective code of conduct/practice for their profession or occupation.
Staff are also made familiar with and are expected to comply with {{org_field_name}}’s safeguarding policies.
All nursing staff and allied health professionals employed by {{org_field_name}} (where applicable) comply with the standards of conduct and practice established by their own regulatory bodies.
Staff are only expected to go beyond their job descriptions in exceptional circumstances to make sure patients’ needs are being met.
[In care homes] The contribution of volunteers supplement and not replace paid staff roles and volunteers do not undertake tasks which are the responsibility of paid staff.

As part of their work roles all staff are expected to:

get to know and develop a relationship with {{org_field_name}} users they support, especially if they are working as key worker in a care home
be able to meet individual needs with particular attention to gender, age, cultural background and personal interests
be aware of their own knowledge and skill limitations and know when it is appropriate to involve someone else with more specific expertise.

Commitment to Teamwork

{{org_field_name}} is committed to having an effective staff team, with sufficient numbers and complementary skills to support patients’ assessed needs at all times. The rota and total numbers of staff planned to be on duty at any one time will therefore be set according to the:

numbers and needs of {{org_field_name}} users to be cared for
ages of {{org_field_name}} users to be cared for
geography and layout of {{org_field_name}} building [in residential care]
locations of patients’ homes [in home care]
skills and experience of the staff
availability of staff (part time/full time/sickness/leave, etc).

In terms of staff experience, it is {{org_field_name}}’s policy that:

there is always an appropriate mix of staff with relevant experience, qualifications and skills available to patients during every part of the day and at night in a care home or during every home care visit
[in a care home] staff who are under 18 on appointment and older staff new to care work who are providing personal care to patients are always directly supervised by more experienced staff members until assessed as being capable of working away from direct supervision
staff left in charge of {{org_field_name}} are all suitably qualified and experienced to be in a position of responsibility
staff who are initially appointed as trainees (including all staff under 18) are as a matter of course registered on a nationally-certified training programme
any staff members from overseas who do not use English as their first language receive support to overcome any immediate communication difficulties they might be having
extra staff will be called in at periods of high demand and emergencies, if necessary
where agency staff have to be used, every effort is made to ensure that a reputable agency is used, that staff provided are of high quality and are suitably qualified and experienced, and that preference is given to using agency staff who know the work of {{org_field_name}} and its users already.

Training

Staff who are new to care work are inducted into their roles in line with the Care Certificate standards and are made aware of other staff roles and responsibilities and {{org_field_name}}’s commitment to teamwork as part of the training process. Staff with previous experience of care work but who are new to this work setting have an induction programme related to their roles and responsibilities. Further training is provided as and when new roles are introduced.

Reviewed on: {{last_update_date}}

N85. Staff Retention