- 09 October 2019
- 6 min read
How Care Home Managers can build occupancy whilst balancing care quality and workload for their team
SubscribeRunning a care home usually has fairly high fixed staffing costs - manager, deputy, admin, chef etc etc so when occupancy dips the profitability can be impacted very fast. Often, working in large care homes catering for older people there may be several unexpected vacancies over a short period. This is upsetting and also means there is a pressure to rebuild occupancy to improve the financial viability of the home whilst maintaining good care quality. Read on to find out how to approach this and do it well.

Managing levels of resident need and dependency with managing occupancy
Considering the levels of resident need and dependency is crucial for the safe and sustainable running of your home.
It is about managing risk and managing workload in order to manage the well-being of those in your care. In general, you will have a staffing ladder for your home – this is usually a sliding scale of resident numbers versus staffing hours.
There is usually the desired number and then the minimum safe number. For example, you may be scheduled to have 6 staff on (ideal), 5 staff would the minimum safe level. 4 would be unsafe.
Needs will vary so when you have a combination of residents requiring exceptional levels of support, you may not to be able to safely run the floor with less than 6.
For a floor with 20 residents, you may have a budget for 3 carers on in the morning and 3 in the afternoon.
This equates to a ratio of 6.7 carers to 1 resident (20 / 3).
Balancing the levels of resident need with staffing levels and the budget is an important skill.
Risks of (relative) high level of need in the home
Staffing ratios are only part of the story. It is also about how strong your staff teams are (depth of experience and care knowledge / mix of hard-workers / team spirit / how well they know the residents / length of service can be a factor).
You need to know your residents and staff team well. It is a judgement call.
The care team will always want residents who are generally easier and complain whatever you do but you need to understand what their actual capacity is.
Give them enough to be manageable busy and build their confidence by building the resident population carefully and thoughtfully.
About this contributor
Registered Home Manager
Liam Palmer is the author of 3 books on raising quality standards in care homes through developing leadership skills. In Oct 2020, he published a guide to the Home Manager role called "So You Want To Be A Care Home Manager?". Liam has been fortunate to work as a Senior Manager across many healthcare brands including a private hospital, a retirement village and medium to large Care Homes in the private sector and 3rd sector. He hosts a podcast "Care Quality - meet the leaders and innovators”.
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