We can assist you in the following areas:
Business planning and development
As experienced business owners and managers we have a great deal of experience in business planning, forecasting and modelling. We can help you either formulate realistic business plans or we can review your own plans to ensure they are achievable, realistic and viable.
Read more...Helping you to achieve that ‘Outstanding’
Achieving that ‘Outstanding’ rating in Fostering, Children’s Homes and Schools is becoming increasingly difficult, especially as Ofsted expect to see services to continually improve and develop. Standing still is not an option and we can help you in the key areas.
Read more...Regulatory matters
We have a great deal of experience with registration and inspection with both Ofsted and CSSIW. We believe it is absolutely vital for agencies to be well informed and knowledgeable on regulatory processes to ensure that they are being treated fairly and equally. Although the regulators are working hard to remove inconsistencies it is common knowledge that the regulations which direct are work are applied differently and under a variety of interpretations across England Wales.
Read more...Preparation for sale
Selling your care business is not an easy task. To ensure you maximise the value of your business, you will need to prepare for sale a long before your business is taken to market. Being properly prepared for selling and having appropriate systems in place will also ensure a smooth sale process, reduce nasty surprises (which nobody likes) and will reduce the risk of potential purchasers attempting to reduce value at a later stage in the process.
Read more...Independent Review Mechanism (IRM) for Fostering
From our experience the Independent Review Mechanism (IRM) is a costly and time wasting process which has dubious and mixed results in the provision of Fostering Services. Including panel fees and staff time and resources we estimate that each IRM panel costs providers in excess of £3,500 (not to mention the £6,500 government subsidy paid to IRM for each case). The difficulties providers face is that IRM works to National Minimum Standards, whilst agencies are always striving to exceed national minimum standards.
Read more...Data and IT
There are a number of data and IT solutions available to the care sector and the choices can be bewildering, particularly for start up businesses. CSC have significant knowledge of the various systems available and in particular Charms. We can help advise you on data base and reporting matters and how to get the most from your system. We also have excellent connections in IT support and telecommunications so can assist you in the wider logistics of running a care business.
Read more...Safeguarding
Issues of Safeguarding, Risk Assessment and Notification are one of the most common reasons agencies fail during Ofsted inspections. A situation not helped by a lack of guidance from Ofsted and inconsistencies amongst inspectors.
In our experience at CSC a lot of agencies over report on their notifications, notify the wrong external agencies, have poor procedural guidance and fail to use details from events to help guide and direct their services as required by Ofsted.
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