Change is a constant in modern organisations, yet successful change management remains a significant challenge. Many transformation initiatives fail due to poor planning, lack of cross-organisational collaboration, and insufficient control and governance. In this first blog of our two-part series, we uncover the common pitfalls in change management and demonstrate how Mood can provide a structured, collaborative and controlled approach to ensure success. 

What are the pitfalls of change management?

Despite the best intentions, managing large-scale change can cause organisations to encounter challenges from siloed planning and a lack of engagement to poor visibility and a slow adaptation to evolving needs. 

The rigidity of traditional change management approaches may restrict continuous iterations or improvements, creating missed opportunities for value realisation. Due to typically isolated and misaligned departments and teams, unidentified risks and inefficiencies can arise. Resistance and a lack of buy-in may also come from stakeholders not actively involved in decision-making, and without a centralised view, the impact of changes across the organisation may not be understood by decision-makers. Furthermore, inadequate control over change processes can lead to non-compliance and operational risks.  

Mood can help organisations alleviate the challenges associated with change management by offering the opportunity to revise change initiatives in ways that are both meaningful and comprehensible for stakeholders across the business. Its visual and interactive capabilities enable organisations to devise solutions and gain insight into organisational structures to better understand dependencies. Continuous improvement is also supported through Mood’s scalability and flexibility, allowing organisations to continuously refine their change management strategies for ongoing relevance and effectiveness.  

Understanding employee psyche during workplace transformation   

At CACI, we have seen the aftermath and consequential damage of failed change initiatives on employees, with the root cause always being a lack of thought for those who were affected by decisions made without their input.  

For employees, large-scale organisational change can be an unsettling and complex experience. The transformation process often triggers a range of emotional and psychological responses, which, if not properly managed, can hinder the success of the initiative. For example, employees may worry about their job security, altered roles with the expectation of the need to learn new skills and take on extra responsibility or changes in their daily routines. A lack of clear communication can amplify these fears, leading to resistance. Sudden changes may also cause a sense of a loss of control, making employees feel powerless. When employees are not involved in shaping the transformation, they may become disengaged or even obstructive.  

Uncertainty and increased workloads during a transition can also create stress, affecting employee wellbeing and productivity. Furthermore, if previous change initiatives have failed or lacked transparency, employees may view new transformations with suspicion. 

Despite any resistance met towards change, it is imperative for organisations to view this as an opportunity for growth, innovation and career development. Providing clear pathways for upskilling and involvement is one vital way to foster a more positive response.  

Understanding these psychological dynamics is crucial for change leaders. By addressing employee concerns through transparent communication, inclusive decision-making and continuous support, organisations can enhance engagement and reduce resistance. Mood boosts employee morale by encouraging cross-departmental contribution and collaboration around change management initiatives. As a shared platform, its alignment and transparency reduce resistance. 

How Mood supports effective change management

Organisations that fail to manage change effectively risk wasted resources, employee disengagement and missed opportunities. By leveraging Mood’s capabilities, businesses can ensure that change initiatives are not only well-planned, but actively supported through collaboration, visibility and governance. 

Mood provides the necessary structure and flexibility to manage complexity, mitigate risks and achieve successful transformation in the form of a comprehensive platform by addressing these key challenges:  

1. Enabling holistic change planning: Mood allows organisations to break down complexity and structure change initiatives in meaningful ways. By providing a visual and interactive representation of business challenges, it helps organisations scenario-plan solutions, provide insights into organisational structures and understand dependencies.  
2. Driving collaboration across the organisation: Mood facilitates engagement from all stakeholders, encouraging different departments and teams to contribute to change initiatives. By providing a shared platform for input and iteration, alignment and transparency are promoted while resistance is reduced.  
3. Providing real-time visibility: Decision-makers can access a centralised, always-up-to-date view of change initiatives. This visibility ensures potential risks and opportunities are identified early and acted upon accordingly.  
4. Maintaining compliance and governance: With security, governance and auditability, Mood provides the necessary controls to maintain compliance with industry regulations and organisational policies.  
5. Supporting continuous improvement: Unlike traditional rigid change management approaches, Mood is flexible and scalable, enabling organisations to iterate and refine their strategies as they gather new insights, ensuring change initiatives remain relevant and effective. 

To learn more about how Mood can support your organisation’s change initiatives, contact us today, or you can download the full change management whitepaper here.

Running a home care service is complicated enough without throwing the modern concern of cyber security into the mix. This blog will take a closer look at how you can easily, efficiently and effectively manage cyber security in your care service. It doesn’t need to be as complicated, expensive and time consuming as you might assume. 

Care services process vast amounts of personal and sensitive data, bringing them under the scope of regulations such as GDPR. Managing cyber security can be a daunting prospect. With a language seemingly all of its own, from phishing and malware to multi-factor authentication and encryption, it can be tricky to navigate for those without a technological background. We will explore how cyber security can be easily managed by care providers. We’ll break down the various considerations and look at simple, effective means of managing it. 

What is cyber security and how does it affect care providers? 

To begin with, a quick explainer on what cyber security is. Cyber security is the function of protecting the devices we use, such as computers and smartphones, and the services we access via them, from theft and malicious intent. 

For example, if you or one of your care workers loses or has their smartphone stolen, you need to have measures in place to prevent access to sensitive information on the device. This covers everything from banking apps to your care plans. We’ll look at how this can be easily achieved. 

Why is cyber security important for care providers? 

Care providers process and record a lot of sensitive, personal information on the clients in their care. It is essential that this data is protected from theft, misuse or breach. Everything from the names, addresses and care records of your clients – anything that makes them identifiable – is considered sensitive information. 

Processing this information is essential to the smooth running of your services. You need to be able to inform your care workers of the care they need to provide with each visit. You will also need to be able to share such information with other care providers and the NHS where necessary.  

Sharing information extends to the CQC, too. With in-person inspections from the regulator becoming more infrequent, you may be asked to submit evidence electronically for assessment, the result of which may or may not be an in-person inspection. Being able to handle and share the data securely is paramount. CACI’s Certa care management software supports this with a dedicated CQC reporting feature which is designed to help you record, sort and share data easily and securely. 

What do care providers need to consider with regards to cyber security? 

1. Confidentiality: all client information, from names and addresses to care plans and medications, must be protected in line with GDPR. Deploying a CMS such as Certa, with an app for your carers to access client data through, is critical for minimising risk and GDPR compliance. 
2. Data minimisation: consider what data you need for services and remove that which you don’t. 
3. Encryption: how are care workers and clients accessing the information that you hold? Securing devices with strong password and two-factor authentication helps to protect your data. 
4. Access controls: ensure only appropriate people can access information on your clients, restricting access across your organisations with role-based permissions. 
5. Staff training: making all your staff aware of cyber security threats is imperative, from phishing email attacks to securing their devices correctly. 
6. System security: staying on top of installing software updates and security patches is essential. 

Cyber security and your CQC inspections 

It’s vital to grasp the significant regulatory expectations care services operate under. The Care Quality Commission’s Single Assessment Framework, for instance, scrutinises how data is kept safe and managed securely, particularly under the ‘Well-led’ Quality Statement concerning governance, management and sustainability. This isn’t a vague aspiration; there are clear expectations that robust arrangements for the availability, integrity and confidentiality of data, records and data management systems are in place. 

Failing to meet these standards, which are intrinsically linked to the Data Protection Act 2018 (incorporating GDPR), isn’t just a procedural hiccup. It can directly impact your CQC assessment and rating. 

The CQC explicitly expects providers to comply with the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) or an equivalent, considering it a minimum for a ‘good’ provider. Ignoring these responsibilities isn’t an option if you want to avoid potentially severe consequences, from hefty fines issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office to the kind of reputational damage that erodes the trust of those you care for and their families. In today’s digital-first world, overlooking robust data security is a direct risk to the sustainability of your service and, most critically, to the safety and privacy of the vulnerable people you support. 

Making cyber security simple for care providers 

Whilst cyber security is a vital consideration for every care service, there is an array of complicated terminologies that can bewilder anyone – especially when your focus is firmly set on delivering outstanding person-centred care to your clients.  

If you’re managing a care service, there are enough plates to keep spinning without the added headache of data security. It can be tempting to ignore it and focus on what your service is designed to deliver. The good news is that securing your data is a lot simpler than you might think. 

Choosing the right care management software can drastically reduce the burden of cyber security for you and your care service. Modern software is designed with cyber security in mind.  

If you haven’t already, digitising your care service is a vital first step. If you’re reliant on paper records, whilst they might not be compromised via malicious emails and lost smartphones, what happens if your office is burgled or there’s a fire? Recovering that data is impossible.  

Then there are those services using a hybrid system of paper records, Word and Excel documents. Where multiple systems are being used, even if they are digital, there are risks to your data in not maintaining sensitive data is one, secure location. Where records are being emailed around, there is further risk of interception and incorrect recipients which will compromise your data security. 

How Certa can make cyber security easy for you 

At CACI, we understand that protecting sensitive data isn’t just a technical requirement. It’s fundamental to delivering quality care. That’s why, as a care management software provider with more than 20 years sector experience, cyber security is at the very heart of what we do.

CACI’s approach is ‘secure by design,’ meaning robust protection is built into our software from the outset. CACI has all the relevant security certificates to support its work, including ISO20000, ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus to support this. 

To simplify that, it means that we’re experts in processing and securing data, something you can benefit from with our care management software solution, Certa.  

At a time when everyone expects to interact with services digitally on demand, Certa is designed to achieve this. From storing client information to making it available to carers, clients and their loved ones, act with confidence that your data security is handled with Certa.  

For more information and to book a demo, please visit: https://www.caci.co.uk/certa.  

Recruiting care workers is becoming an increasingly difficult and costly operation. Job vacancies in the care industry are plentiful. This affords care workers a greater degree of choice and flexibility in choosing who they work for.

So, why should they work for you and your home care service? From salary to working conditions, your service needs to be an attractive proposition to skilled care workers. You then need to have the processes and systems in place to keep them, otherwise the process repeats itself all over, costing you time and money, impacting on service delivery.

In this blog we will examine how you can attract and retain care workers, helping to make your care service more effective and efficient. 

Why is caring for the carers important to your care service? 

It’s an obvious question to ask, but why is caring for your carers so important? If we look at your clients for a moment, continuity of care is vital. It builds rapport, trust and establishes a personal touch to your services. Your clients, at a vulnerable stage of their lives, will appreciate consistency and the presence of carers who they like and who understand their needs.  

In a situation where you’re constantly shuffling your pack, bringing agency workers in to plug gaps and recruiting anyone to support service delivery, this vital sense of connection between your clients and your service is quickly lost. 

One of the questions the CQC asks as part of its single assessment framework is, are your services caring? Where you have consistent, understanding carers who specialise in the area of care they are administering, it makes answering ‘yes’ to that question – and demonstrating it – much easier. 

There’s also a financial element to consider for care services here. With lots of vacancies comes a lot of competition for care workers. If you can attract and retain staff, it minimises your need to recruit. This reduces staff costs and a reliance on more expensive agency staff in delivering your care services. If you look after your care workers, they will look after your clients, which in turn will look after your business. It’s a virtuous circle which reduces costs and administrative headaches. 

How can you care for your carers?

We’ve established why it’s so important to care for your carers, but how can you achieve this? Your care service is likely a very busy environment, with a multitude of demands being juggled simultaneously. We’ll look at how you can effectively care for your carers, from their appointment through to, hopefully, a long and successful career with you. 

1. Understand the skills of your carers 
   • Each carer who works in your care services has a unique set of skills and experiences. How can you best deploy them across your clients? Each of your clients, too, has their own unique care needs, so effectively matching your carers to your clients is important.  
2. Assign your carers to tasks they’re passionate about Assign your carers to tasks they’re passionate about 
   • A continuation of understanding the skills and experiences of your carers is scheduling them to tasks they’re passionate about. Not only will this help to keep your carers happy, it will have a knock-on effect in the care they deliver to your clients. It’s a logical thing to do, but something that can get lost in the maelstrom of administrative tasks faced by registered managers and administrators. 
3. Help your carers develop their careers with you 
   • Every care worker wants to advance their career. It helps them to stay motivated, increase their earning potential and realise their own potential as carers. Providing training opportunities is a great way to support your carers. It helps them to develop and also demonstrates that you’ve got their best interests in mind. 
4. Communication
   • It sounds simple, but getting communication right between management and carers is crucial. Where you communicate clearly and well, it builds trust and rapport between you and your workforce. Having the means to effectively achieve this is an important consideration. Communication extends beyond on the day, last minute communications, to letting carers know their schedule in advance, equipping them with the relevant information they need for each visit and providing them with a means of recording visits and leaving feedback. This is another aspect to feature on the CQC’s single assessment framework. 
5. Use the right care management software
   • Technology plays a fundamental role in the success of care services like yours. From onboarding new clients and care workers, to managing finances and care schedules, using care management software that supports your care services is essential. When choosing the best system for your care service it is important to involve your care workers in the decision making process. They will be the ones using it day in, day out, to deliver your services.  
      

How Certa from CACI can help you care for your carers?

Certa is a complete care management software solution designed for care providers. It supports every aspect of care delivery, including the scheduling, communication and understanding of your care workforce.  

With bespoke dashboards for each office manager and administrator, you can more easily understand the skills and experiences of your carers, match them to tasks and clients that suit them and create continuity in your care services. You can also better identify areas for improvement, suggest training courses and receive feedback from your carers. 

Certa can support you in caring for your carers. For more information, visit www.caci.co.uk/certa/.

Staff turnover is an inevitability in any business. As is, hopefully, business growth. When a business expands, new recruits are needed to fulfil an expanding list of tasks. Pinpointing the skills and experience required, however, can be a challenge. It can make recruitment difficult for any organisation. So, how can you best tackle recruitment, conducting it seamlessly for the smooth running of your services? 

Understanding is the vital ingredient. It’s one thing knowing that you need to bring people in, but it’s a different challenge being able to swiftly pinpoint the skills and experience required to best serve your business needs. Having a bird’s eye view of your entire workforce can help. When training, competency management and understanding of future tasks and scheduling are brought together within a single workforce management framework, it helps you in identifying skills gaps and making informed decisions in regards to your recruitment. 

Knowledge driving recruitment 

If you have a central system that holds all the information on your workforce, it makes the task of understanding the skills, experience and competencies available to you straightforward. You can easily run reports and gain vital insight. In industries such as construction, transport and healthcare, core competencies are vital in delivering frontline services. For example, if you have a low or dwindling number of staff appropriately qualified to administer injections, it gives you an opportunity to react before service delivery is impacted. 

Now, this can of course be done internally via training programmes as we touched upon in our previous blog. The same holistic view of training and competencies across your organisation is vital in making informed recruitment decisions, too. 

Where staff cannot be upskilled internally, it makes recruitment inevitable. Using a central system can make the task easier for management teams responsible for recruitment, by being able to identify specific skills and experience that are needed across the organisation. Recruitment isn’t just a numbers game and shouldn’t be left to chance. 

How long will the recruitment process take? 

Another crucial aspect is understanding how long the recruitment process will take. Managers will need to take time out from their usual tasks to conduct interviews; what’s the knock-on effect of this? There’s also a cost implication in terms of not having enough staff available and in terms of the shifting of resources to the recruitment process. 

Diverting resources is obviously a big undertaking, so understanding the consequences upon your resources, time and budgets is fundamental. Having a central view of your workforce will again help in this regard, helping to map out your resources and their allocation.

Recruitment leading to training and competency management

Once the recruitment phase is completed and you have new staff signed up, what happens next? The first aspect is once again linked to your competency management efforts. If someone says they have certain qualifications, particularly in safety critical environments it is a good idea to check. Evidencing certificates and obtaining references can be completed by the new staff member, with the copies then stored against their record in your system. This means that you will have oversight of their skills, qualifications and experience for the duration of their time with you. This will help your scheduling teams in being able to appropriately assign tasks to them. 

Once you’re satisfied that they are appropriately qualified, they will then need to be enrolled into your organisation and the teams with which they will be working. This process may include mandatory health and safety training for new starters. Assigning this and making sure it’s completed can be done centrally, with any result again being stored against their record. This can trigger alerts for when any refresher training might be required in future, too. 

What happens next?

Most jobs have a probationary period, something that extends beyond safety critical work and helps to ensure that people are up to the job for which you have employed them for. Similarly, it enables employees the opportunity to leave with shorter notice if they decide the job isn’t for them. 

 Keeping track of this probationary period is crucial. Assessments and feedback of their work will help to make informed decisions on whether or not they have passed. Storing all of this information centrally helps to give your organisation a complete view of its workforce. 

Once a new recruit is up and running, they will hopefully be in a position to fulfil their tasks in the way needed. Seeing them become a regular part of your workforce asap is beneficial to service delivery. This requires careful planning and oversight of your organisation. 

What specific skills and experience does your organisation need? Who will be required to recruit? How much time will be needed? What processes are in place to get new starters up and running? All of these questions can be answered when you have a bird’s eye view of your entire workforce. By linking training and competency management, you can make more informed and accurate decisions. 

CACI has recently published a whitepaper, Effective workforce management to improve outcomes across your business, which explores this topic in more detail. You can download your free copy here. 

The rise of technology has been inexorable this century, from widespread internet adoption to the ubiquitous presence of smartphones. The advances are clear, but with so much on offer, choosing the right solutions can feel like guesswork. It can be like heading to your local DIY store to pick up some white paint; there are at least 37 different options. Which one do you choose? The process of digitising social care and utilising digital home care software to underpin and support your care services can feel exactly the same. 

It can be a challenge in identifying your own needs sometimes, too. Your current process might work for you, but you can accept that it’s inefficient versus what the rest of the market is using. You don’t want to miss out, but at the same time you don’t want to commit to spending time and money on a solution which provide the answer to a question you weren’t asking. 

To help, CACI recently launched a white paper, The top seven features you need from your care management software. It’s free to download here. 

In this article we’re going to look at the importance of digital home care software and the difference that technology can make to care providers, their clients and their staff. 

Digital home care software to support care providers

The rise of digital has touched every area of care provision. Peter Skinner, programme director for Digitising Social Care, noted in 2024 that some 70% of care providers have a digital social care record. That number is expected to surpass 80% in 2025. 

Recording and maintaining digital care records is crucial for a number of reasons: 

• Record information at source in a uniform manner across your services
• Easily search for records 
• Use data gathered to report on your care services 
• Understand the skills and experiences of your care workers 
• Share information with external agencies, such as the NHS and other care providers, easily 
• Provide a friends and family portal with real-time information 
• Keep your records securely in one place 
• Make data gathering for inspections easy 
• Comply with regulations such as GDPR 
• Easily recover data in the case of a disaster event – you can’t recover paper records if an event such a fire occurs 

With the right technology in place, care providers can enhance the service they provide to clients. With a digital record, it removes duplication of questions, with each care worker able to access a single source of the truth. There’s no more waiting for care records and their information to be manually logged in the office. Rather, such information can simply be captured at source on a mobile device. 

Digital home care software to support care workers

With a single source of the truth, your care workers can then administer the right care at the right time. With full visibility of previous care provided and a robust and reliable record of each client’s bespoke needs, you can reduce the risk of error and duplication. 

Digitisation can also support more efficient and effective care worker scheduling. With a central record of care workers as well as clients, you can match the skills and experiences of care workers to the needs of clients. Does a care worker have a good relationship with a particular client? Do they have more experience catering for certain needs? 

You can further plan the route of their care visits to make the most efficient use of their time, potentially facilitating more care visits from a single shift. 

As your care workers complete their care visits, they can simply record the outcomes of each visit via their mobile device. No need to write down notes, carry them with them and submit them to the office. This reduces the administrative burden on care workers, freeing them to focus on what they’re good at – delivering outstanding care to your clients. 

None of this can be achieved without digitising social care and your provision of it.  

Digital home care software to support your clients

In the modern day, clients, as well as their friends and family, expect an interactive service. This cannot be achieved with manual data entry, paper records and an inability to share information beyond the walls of the office. 

When digitising your care services, you open up new opportunities such as friends and family portals. These can display to your clients and their loved ones the status of their care, what has been administered and planned visits. 

This also makes it easier to communicate with your clients where short-term exceptions arise. If, for example, one of your care workers is unable to fulfil their shift that day, you can communicate this clearly and make clear what you are doing to reschedule or rearrange the care visit. 

With digitised care records, you can also share and receive information on clients. If a client is joining your care service from somewhere else, being able to receive all of their information and history of care gives you invaluable insight whilst preparing for them. Similarly, outgoing clients can be supported in their next setting in the same way. 

There is also vital information to be recorded in those instances when clients leave your care services and receive treatment in an NHS or other setting such as a hospital.  

Whilst the sharing of data between the NHS and care providers is far from seamless, it can only be achieved and improved upon with the digitisation of social care and digital care records. This link can make a tangible difference to your clients, helping to return them to a residential setting as soon as possible. This minimises disruption to their lives and your care services. 

Conclusion

Digitisation isn’t going away. The advances have been too rapid and too all-encompassing for there to be any scope to row back on it. It is, therefore, essential that you digitise your care services and ask the right questions in selecting care management software providers. 

Our white paper looks at the top features you need: 

• Care planning 
• Rostering 
• Mobile app 
• Financial management 
• Reporting 
• Friends and family portal 
• Support, security and compliance 

Hopefully it offers some guidance as to what you can expect from care management software and how it can support you in digitising your care records.  

The technology landscape is rapidly changing. So, you might have a solution in place that no longer supports all of your needs. If you’re looking to go digital for the first time or are looking at your next software solution for your care service, please visit www.caci.co.uk/certa for more information on how CACI can support you. 

Two weeks ago, CACI’s Certa team attended one of the largest celebrations of the care sector, The Care Show London 2025. The event brought together care providers, tech innovators and policymakers to explore the future of social care. The use of AI, both good and bad, was one of the hot topics of the event, along with a . This blog takes a closer look at the key topics we found most interesting at the Care Show London 2025.

Generative AI in social care: the Oxford initiative of the responsible use of AI in social care and onwards

This thought-provoking session by Daniel Casson (Digital Transformation Advisor at Casson Consulting), Katie Thorn (Project Lead at Digital Care Hub), and Dr. Caroline Green (Early Careers Research Fellow at the Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford), delved into the pros, cons and ethical considerations of introducing AI into social care. Much of their talk centred on the use of large language models (LLMs) and concerns with how their use fits in with the values of person-centred care.

To combat this, the talk covered how The Digital Care Hub will soon release official guidance on the responsible use of AI in care settings. This included examining why technology suppliers need to pledge their commitment to creating ethical, collaborative solutions that genuinely serve the care community.

A point that was stressed at the Care Show London 2025 was the need for close alignment with the CQC and the Department of Health and Social Care, to ensure AI is applied responsibly. Dr. Caroline Green gave a memorable analogy to explain AI’s predictive nature: if someone goes to the pub every Thursday, eventually their phone might suggest a message like, “Going down the pub, will be back late,” highlighting how AI learns through pattern recognition, not understanding.

Daniel Carson rounded off the session by urging AI developers to consider both the care workforce and the care recipient, ensuring AI meets the needs of all stakeholders.

Outstanding at home: transforming quality in domiciliary care

This session at the Care Show London 2025 from Caroline Cosh (Director at The OS & Clifton Home Care), Rob Hargreaves (Information Service Manager at Skills For Care) and Patricia Conteh (Head of Clinical Services at Prestige Nursing & Care), focused on how to raise standards in home-based care. A particular emphasis of the talk was on how businesses can achieve an ‘outstanding’ rating from the CQC.

Key actionable takeaways for home care providers included:

• Maintaining clear evidence logs
• Capturing positive client feedback
• Demonstrating strong safeguarding practices
• Providing robust documentation and audit trails
• Preparing for both service-led and leadership-focused inspections

It was a valuable reminder that proactive, well-documented and values-driven care is essential for both compliance and excellence in a domiciliary setting.

A regulatory lens: CQC’s forward focus unveiled at Care Show London 2025

Another standout moment from the Care Show London 2025 was the keynote from James Bullion CBE (Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care) at the CQC. His update provided a long-awaited look into the regulatory landscape shaping the future of care.

Bullion acknowledged the backlog of inspections, stressed that the number of inspections is increasing and structural changes are on the horizon. “We’re underway with more inspections, we’re dealing with backlogs and we’re about to make some structural changes in the organisation,” he said, signalling a proactive shift in CQC’s approach, with further announcements expected this summer.

He emphasised the shared responsibility between providers and the regulator, noting: “It is in our joint interest for there to be a strong regulator that works effectively so that we can show the public and the government that care is good.”

A major focus for the CQC going forward includes a reshaped leadership structure to bring back sector-specific expertise. The appointment of Sir Julian Hartley as CEO in December, followed by Dr. Arun Chopra as Chief Inspector of Mental Health, marks the beginning of this leadership refresh. New chief inspectors will be responsible for overseeing inspection programmes, enabling faster, more informed decision making.

This update was particularly relevant given the increasing intersection between regulation, technology and person-centred care. This was a recurring theme throughout the event. For providers, the message was clear: being prepared, transparent and responsive to evolving expectations will be key to delivering quality care and achieving compliance in the years ahead.

Final thoughts on the Care Show London 2025

The Care Show London offered a vital glimpse into where social care is heading, from the use of ethical AI and performance enhancing platforms to best-in-class home care delivery. As a team, CACI left feeling inspired by the people and ideas driving innovation across the sector.

“With Certa, we’re committed to supporting the transformation of home care companies through tools that empower teams, streamline care processes and improve outcomes for everyone involved. Attending The Care Show reinforced just how vital innovation is to the future of care. We’re proud to be part of that journey.” Greg Ayles, Director, Certa

The Environment Agency has chosen CACI’s Cygnum system to support its flood management response teams. With more than 7,000 staff members with incident roles, the Environment Agency has to balance long term incident response preparation with short term workforce scheduling in responding to incidents immediately. CACI are shaping Cygnum to meet these very specific requirements to underpin the Environment Agency’s response to floods. 

To begin with, Cygnum is a long-established workforce management solution which is utilised by organisations such as Transport for London, the Care Quality Commission and Network Rail. It is deployed by organisations with large workforces to handle scheduling, training and competency management, either as a standalone solution or as part of a wider technology ecosystem. 

Understanding the skills, experience and training of employees, assessing them, recording their results and ensuring the right people are in the right place at the right time is Cygnum’s remit. 

What the Environment Agency needs for its flood management response 

The Environment Agency needs a system to support its incident management responses. Such incidents vary from pollution to flooding, with its staff volunteering for two roles: duty roles, where they are on call 24/7 for one week in every eight and; incident activated where they are only called upon during active incidents. The Environment Agency works closely with other agencies such as the Met Office to help forecast flooding incidents. This helps to manage staffing numbers and understand where and when incidents are most likely to occur. 

Staffing is only one facet of incident response at the Environment Agency, though. When responding to an incident such a flood, there is also the need for a lot of equipment. The severity of the incident must be decided upon and the response activated. In a live environment, this can also need to be scaled up or down. Being able to call upon specialist equipment and appropriate operators in real time is essential. 

How Cygnum has been shaped to assist with flood management 

Cygnum has long supported organisations in workforce management. This covers scheduling, competency management and training, with all three being interlinked. You need to schedule staff, you need to know that they’re appropriately skilled, qualified and experienced (competent) for the tasks they’re being scheduled to and you need to assess their performance, provide ongoing training where necessary and upskill staff from within. That’s a very high level overview of workforce management. 

The unique challenge with the Environment Agency for Cygnum is in overlaying the scheduling of equipment onto tasks. Similarly to scheduling people, you need to know that equipment is fit for purpose. 

In an incident response scenario, the equipment is unlikely to be in the same location as the people. What equipment is needed to respond to an incident? Who has the skills to operate the equipment? Where is the equipment and where are the staff who can operate it? Is it in use anywhere else? Then there are other factors such as repairs and servicing. Having an accurate and complete overview of equipment, similarly to staff, is essential in effective incident response. 

Bringing schedules and availability together 

Environmental incidents require urgent action, so it’s vital to be able to bring together the schedules and experiences of staff with the availability and suitability of equipment. Quickly. 

In creating an incident management response framework, Cygnum has to overlay these two areas. This provides transparency and, crucially, accurate real-time information on the availability of staff and tools. 

This facilitates decision making appropriate to the level and nature of an incident. Rather than manually searching records and locating items piecemeal, informed decisions can be made from a central screen. From this, actions can be determined and mapped out.  

This helps to reduce human error, since rules can be established to prevent an action from being implemented in the event that either the staff member or piece of equipment is unsuitable for the task.  

For example, if someone is on site somewhere else or a piece of equipment has been damaged in its last usage, neither are appropriate for the task at hand. Having immediate oversight of this prevents assumptions and errors. 

Building your system around you 

Every organisation has different, bespoke requirements when it comes to managing their workforce and responding to incidents that impact upon service delivery. In delivering Cygnum, we are always working in close partnership with organisations to ensure that their individual needs are met. 

This means no two implementations are the same, but allows us to work with a wide array of organisations where complexity, scale and mission criticality are key. Adding incident management capability to Cygnum’s scope offers even more value to these customers.   

For more information on Cygnum, please visit: https://www.caci.co.uk/software/cygnum/