membership profile and history

membership profile

C&SW has in its membership a good proportion of the total volume of care provision across the four ex-Avon Unitary authorities. This amounts to over 150 organisational sites, who between them deliver care in around three thousand residential, nursing and supported living care beds. In addition, we have a large number of Domiciliary Care and Community Support Services provider members who between them deliver thousands of hours of community-based care every day. All are regulated by CQC and QA monitored by their local commissioning authority or the authority which has placed the service user with the provider. Members operate under a mix of organisational entities including under the umbrellas of Sole Trader, Private, Voluntary, Independent and Charitable status.

The membership includes LiveIn care, care homes, care homes with nursing, specialist care units, organisations who support people in their own homes (sometimes called supported living) day care centres and providers of domiciliary care (sometimes known as home care). All these organisations provide care of varying sorts to working age adults, older people, people with mental health and/or learning disability needs, and those with sensory, physical and/or hearing impairment needs. C&SW continues to grow with non-regulated providers (sometimes referred to as Community Support or Community Based Services - CSS or CBS) also joining for support.

our history

Care and Support West began its life as The Avon Residential Care Homes Association (ARCHA) and was launched around 1980 in response to and in preparation for the Government’s plan to bring forward The Registered Homes Act 1984. The group consisted of a few interested providers who decided they needed to support each other in the context of a push from central and local government to legislate in relation to care in a much more focused way. Much later, in 1996, the County of Avon became four single Unitary Authorities by which time the ARCHA movement had grown significantly.

The growing group of members soon realised that care providers often feel quite isolated and in need of advice and support to manage their businesses and to have useful conversations with the regulator, service users and their families and of course commissioning and contracting officers. This was the case in 1980 and is even more relevant now as providers care for people with ever more complex needs, in the context of ever-increasing costs and from the Government via the LA’s, ever decreasing funds.

Toward the end of the 1990’s the Association began to include in its membership domiciliary care and supported living providers as well as care homes. The title ARCHA began to no longer describe what the association stood for so via a process of reflection and change management the name, by 2007, had changed to Care and Support West to indicate the wider portfolio of care provision within its membership. Today it represents around 45% of the care providers (regulated and non-regulated) across the four ex-Avon authority’s geographical area; that is to say South Gloucestershire, Bristol, North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset. C&SW incorporated in 2013 to become a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. The association is a member of a number of national organisations; these include The Care Association Alliance, Care England (formerly ECCA) and The National Skills Academy. We also have close links with the Home Care Association (HCA).

Alongside our role in working with these national and regional “voices” we arrange monthly subject specific workshops for our members with handpicked speakers on sector related issues. We run an annual Awards scheme, a sector specific Conference and actively look to provide networking opportunities for members to get together and share their knowledge and experience. In partnership with Skills for Care we run Registered Managers Network meetings in each of the four LA’s we serve. In addition, we are the bridge via which providers access Workforce Development Funds to support the training of their staff; this is also done in partnership with Skills for Care.

We also carry out Independent Service Reviews to help members see where they stand in relation to the CQC KLOE’s and domains (is the home safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led) so that they can identify gaps before an inspection and act to counter any criticism.