First introduced in 2014, and gradually rolled out across England, the Nursing Homes Quality Improvement Service (NHQIS) campaign has provided “context, motivation and support” to create a culture of positive social, emotional and cultural inclusion and to improve care.
More than 400,000 care homes in England now belong to this group.
But the HMI Suitable Community Homes Pilot is just one of the five pilots funded by the NHQIS.
Nurses are encouraged to connect with their communities and work with people to develop tailored care plans to ensure they can fulfil their health and social care needs within community settings.
Staff are trained and provided with support.
This is also in the name of improving social inclusion.
This year it appears that initiatives of this kind are most widely used in midwifery settings, apparently boosting maternity unit wellbeing, which is crucial to the healthy development of future children.
Research has found that women who were involved in the pilot were more positive about their experiences and felt they had more access to their midwife.
This, in turn, improved both self-reported and objective health and wellbeing scores.
The organisation’s director, Dr Alasdair Hope, called this “good support”.
“It gives the midwife new information on the culture of the maternity unit and allows for the planning of better ways of supporting those with mental health and other needs.”
The programme also delivered improvements in both hospital and community settings, reducing staff turnover and staff morale, recruiting new staff, improving staff wellbeing and retention, improving maternal satisfaction and encouraging women to have more midwifery consultations.