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CARE HOME PROFESSIONAL, THE POWER LIST, LEADERS OF TOMORROW AUGUST EDITION -Read here

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CCFTV has called for safety monitoring for a very long time. During those years, we have had to bite our lip and resist the ‘we told you so’ claim as many more vulnerable people were needlessly harmed or abused in care homes. We have been consistent in making a case for overt camera systems to provide real transparency and act as a deterrent for abusers. Only a handful of care providers have responded positively over this timeframe and installed CCTV which means most older people in care homes remain at greater risk of harm than necessary.

As part of our call for systems use, we have endeavoured to visit homes with cameras, meet with systems providers and assess all of the safety monitoring options available for Care Providers to consider. It is clear to us that any safety system deployed should be independent in operation and that the monitoring aspect should be undertaken by suitably qualified professionals who fully understand what constitutes abuse. Those systems should have legal opinion support, with an accompanying bible of documents to meet the following requirements; written consent, privacy impact assessment, data protection, operational policies and randomised audit services, all with a professional duty of candour for monitors to report any viewed event that could be determined as criminal. The goal of such systems are to protect vulnerable people, but also to share a common goal with care providers and eradicate abusers from the care sector.

Providers who have installed cameras have confirmed that systems are best introduced when all parties have been informed. So monitoring companies should be willing to provide system demonstrations for residents, staff, relatives, service commissioners and any other stakeholders prior to system use. It is important that staff see evidence-based examples of how monitoring has improved the resident care experience and at times, protected staff from vexatious complaints. Staff will know that colleagues who are abusers can be targeted by such systems and removed, ensuring that the rest of the staff cohort is not tainted by the actions of one person.

It's important that providers don’t just attempt to introduce self-managed systems that do not have professional support services included as often in those scenarios, retrospective reviewing becomes the only service. That means a resident may be already harmed before staff internally review days and days of recorded footage to assess an event that may have happened sometime before reporting. A risk also exists that footage managed internally may not be disclosed to other management team members if the implications are too great for a particular home.

Professional monitoring companies can install full systems and provide an affordable menu of services that can be purchased when required. Having an independent company with the ability to log in and conduct a remote virtual audit at any time of day/night is of immense value to a care home business wanting to understand what is happening in their homes at any given point in time.

CCFTV will continue to urge care providers to commit to system adoption as well as call for regulators and local authorities to make such systems mandatory as soon as possible.