Member Article

Bradford Care Association Drives Up Standards Across The City

THREE years since it was founded with the aim of promoting the very best quality care in the Bradford District, Bradford Care Association (BCA) now counts more than 70% of the city’s residential and nursing homes, as well as domiciliary care providers, as members.

These organisations benefit from being able to share best practice, having access to the latest training opportunities and being kept up to date with news from all areas of the public sector, including the Care Quality Commission and the NHS. Crucially the BCA is also involved in negotiating fee increases with the Local Authority and the Clinical Commissioning Groups for publicly funded service users.

BCA’s Chairman is Konrad Czajka, who is the Managing Director of Saltaire based Czajka Care Group. He says: “We launched Bradford Care Association in late 2014 to enhance the standard of care that clients receive throughout the region, whilst offering support to care providers and giving the industry an amplified voice, on both a national and regional level.

“It’s been a huge success and we now have more than two thirds of Bradford District’s care providers signed up as members, with new ones joining on a regular basis. We’re now hoping to reach a point in the next 12 months where we represent 90% of the city’s care providers and would encourage any organisations that aren’t yet members, to find out about the benefits that come from being part of this industry body.”

BCA’s successes include promoting training with Skills for Care which provides practical tools and support to help adult social care organisation recruit, develop and lead their workforce.

Another highlight is its collaboration with Bradford Council Service Improvement Board which brings together industry leaders to create a sustainable health and care economy that supports people to be healthy, well and independent. The BCA’s involvement with the ‘Cost of Care Exercise’ is also helping to achieve a fairer cost for the care being delivered by homecare, domiciliary care and nursing and residential providers.

The organisation also recently launched a “Buddying Up System” which is immediately proving popular and enables members to seek help with specific issues where they require support.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Steven Wright .