| 7 January 2025
The National Clinical Homecare Association (NCHA) and Skills for Health have launched a public consultation on the clinical homecare sector’s first ever career and competence framework.
Over 600,000 people in the UK currently receive clinical homecare, which involves the administration of medication and specialist treatment at home, to help patients – often with complex conditions – live their lives more independently. Services are provided by the NHS and the private homecare sector in collaboration to support all patients registered on a homecare service. Services are defined by agreements between NHS and the homecare companies and are estimated to save the UK economy £264m a year.
Clinical homecare providers offer a spectrum of clinical homecare services within specialist treatment pathways for acute and long-term conditions from infections requiring intravenous antibiotics to specialist medicines for Parkinson’s Disease and home parenteral nutrition for patients who are unable to eat normally.
With demand for clinical homecare services growing, the career and competence framework lays the foundations for a robust and scalable workforce with standardised and structured career pathways to enable the workforce to develop and grow. “Until now, variation in job roles and their descriptions has increased complexity and clinical risk of services. Contractual blockers to the “right capability, right time” deployment of staff is also compounded by different commissioning approaches.” comments Alison Davis, Managing Director Pharmaxo Healthcare.
NCHA represents the majority of the UK’s largest clinical homecare providers. Formed in 2006, the association introduced the Clinical Homecare Industry Code of Practice and has worked closely with NHS National Homecare Medicines Committee and Royal Pharmaceutical Society to ensure there is a core set of published standards that governs the provision of clinical homecare services. Committed to improving standards and promoting safe, cost effective and seamless integrated patient care, the career and competence framework is the natural next step for the sector.
Against this background, the clinical homecare career and competence framework aims to help facilitate shared understanding, decrease the potential for differences in interpretation and support robust commissioning of high-quality homecare services and equip the workforce to provide personalised, high-quality care.
An expert reference group, made up of clinical homecare sector leaders and professionals, developed the first iteration of the framework. Now, clinical homecare stakeholders, healthcare professionals, caregivers and patients are invited to contribute their views to help refine the framework before its publication early next year.
Skills for Health’s Andrew Lovegrove is leading on the consultation which opened on 7 January 2025. He comments:
The benefits of this model of at home care delivery means that it is imperative that the sector is afforded the room to grow. Clinical homecare is a lifeline for patients and their families, providing medication and specialist treatment outside of the healthcare setting, which supports them to lead better lives.
The aim of the framework is to provide an industry-wide resource facilitating the transferability of competency within and between homecare organisations. Furthermore, it will provide a base from which to review the development of all relevant professionals working across the full range of homecare services and grow the clinical homecare workforce to meet patient needs.
To take part in the public consultation by midday 14 February 2025.
Take part in the consultation