Impact on Partnership Working

How the My Home Life programme has a positive impact on partners.

RQIA: Work almost completed on the development of the newly established Inspection Support Volunteer (ISV) role
Care Homes Unit (Noel Irwin and colleagues) and Social Care Collaborative Forum: promoting partnership working between the DoH and social care sector and which has a workstream on Enhancing Care in Care Homes (Sarah Penney, MHL representative on SCCF)
Chief Nursing Officer: Supporting the implementation and evaluation of the Enhanced Clinical Care Framework (ECCF)
NISCC: Mapping of the MHL programme to the Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management in Health and Social Care (Adults Residential Management) (Northern Ireland)
Public Health Agency (My Life in a Care Home Survey)
IHCP, PCC-NI, Dementia NI, Alzheimer’s Society, Linking Generations NI, FE colleges providing support for programme content and QI initiatives

The My Home Life programme will contribute to the rebuilding of health and social care services for those residing in a care home setting.

- Robin Swann, Minister for Health, Department of Health,2022

supporting care home staff in developing their leadership skills and confidence, will undoubtedly contribute to continuous quality improvement and benefit residents and staff across the whole service. RQIA actively support the My Home Life Programme.

- Briege Donaghy, CEO, RQIA

The Social Care Council, as the regulator for the social work and social care workforce in Northern Ireland has responsibility for setting standards of conduct and practice and supporting development of the social care workforce across the health and social care system. This is the largest workforce in the health and social care system with over 40,000 social care practitioners and managers registered with the Council. The Social Care Council therefore welcomes and values the opportunity to work collaboratively with the My Home Life programme team to ensure that the programme supports the learning and development needs of our registrants working in care homes. The outcomes from the programme demonstrate clear benefit to our focus on supporting and improving standards of care. We have built a strong relationship with the programme team and as a result, we have been able to progress work in seeking to align the My Home Life programme with our newly launched Care in Practice Framework, a continuous learning and development framework that supports both formal and informal learning across the career spectrum. The alignment and mapping of My Home Life is important in providing recognition for development of knowledge and skills as well as providing a professional benchmark for quality. The project outcomes, alongside evaluation of the programme provide important evidence into the system of its value and contribution to improving the lived experience of people living and working in care homes. This has contributed to professional discussions both within the Social Care Council and in discussion with key partner stakeholders, including influencing strategic developments, including the recently launched DoH Social Care Workforce Strategy 2025-2035. I can confirm that strategic discussions have also included a desire to explore the potential for the My Home Life concept and programme to be considered for other areas of service delivery, e.g. the model of homecare (domiciliary care services) and children’s residential care services.  I wish My Home Life every success for the future.

- Marian O'Rourke, Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC)