Connecting Care Expertise and Technology: Fulcrum Care Partners with Access
Maintaining compliance within a care service requires more than preparing for the next CQC inspection.
Providers need reliable processes for care planning, medication, staffing, auditing, governance and financial oversight. They also need to understand how these different areas affect the quality and stability of the service as a whole.
When information is fragmented across different systems or processes, maintaining a clear view of performance becomes more difficult. Leaders may spend considerable time locating information, checking whether actions have been completed and trying to identify where risks are emerging.
That is why Fulcrum Care has partnered with Access Health, Support and Care.
The partnership brings together Fulcrum’s independent regulatory and operational expertise with Access’s connected technology for health and social care providers.
Supporting Compliance as Part of Everyday Care Delivery
CQC compliance should not be treated as an exercise that begins when an inspection is approaching.
The evidence that demonstrates safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services is created through everyday practice. It can be found in care plans, medication records, audits, staffing information, governance meetings, action plans and the experiences of the people receiving care.
Providers therefore need systems that help them maintain this information and make it accessible to the people responsible for oversight.
Fulcrum supports providers in understanding regulatory expectations, identifying gaps and improving how quality and risk are managed.
Access provides software covering key areas of care delivery and service management. By bringing these two areas together, the partnership can help providers identify what needs to improve and establish systems that support that improvement over time.
Building Stronger Evidence of Compliance
Having policies and procedures in place is important, but providers must also be able to demonstrate that those policies are understood and reflected in practice.
This means maintaining clear evidence of actions, decisions, outcomes and continuous improvement.
Fulcrum’s consultants can review how a service operates through mock inspections, audits, governance reviews and wider consultancy support. This provides an independent view of where evidence is strong, where gaps exist and what action may be required.
Access offers compliance and audit tools designed around the CQC framework. These can help providers monitor performance, record actions and maintain greater visibility of quality and governance across their services.
The technology does not replace independent scrutiny or professional judgement. It gives providers a more structured way to manage the information and actions that support ongoing compliance.
Connecting Care Planning with Quality Oversight
Care plans are an important source of evidence about how a service understands and responds to individual needs.
They need to remain accurate, current and accessible to the people delivering care.
Access provides digital care planning tools that help teams record and update information within a connected system. Its solutions also include eMAR and medication management, helping providers maintain clearer records around medicines and related care activity.
Fulcrum can independently review care documentation and wider service practice to assess whether records are complete, person-centred and reflected in the care being delivered.
Together, this creates a connection between the systems used to record care and the independent expertise needed to assess its quality.
Improving Governance and Accountability
Effective governance depends on more than collecting information.
Providers need to understand what the information means, where risk is increasing and whether agreed actions are producing the required improvement.
Fulcrum works with providers to strengthen governance arrangements, improve quality assurance and establish clearer accountability.
Access can support this work by bringing information from different operational areas into a more connected environment. This can make it easier for leaders to review performance and follow up outstanding actions.
For organisations operating across several services, improved visibility can also help senior teams identify recurring concerns and compare performance across the wider portfolio.
Supporting Workforce Management
Staffing is closely connected to quality, safety and regulatory compliance.
Providers need suitable numbers of appropriately trained staff, but they must also manage rotas, absences, payroll, supervision and wider workforce information.
Access offers rostering, scheduling, HR and payroll systems developed for care providers. Connecting these areas can reduce duplicated administration and help managers maintain clearer workforce information.
Fulcrum can assess the wider operational and governance issues connected to staffing, including leadership capacity, training, accountability and service stability.
This allows technology and independent expertise to address different parts of the same challenge.
Understanding the Wider Performance of a Service
Quality, compliance and commercial performance do not operate separately.
Staffing pressures can affect care quality. Weak governance may allow operational issues to continue without effective challenge. Poor visibility of financial information can make it harder to plan appropriate investment in the service.
Access provides finance and operational systems that can help providers develop a clearer view of their organisation.
Fulcrum supports providers with operational reviews, commercial due diligence, turnaround planning, interim management and wider consultancy.
Bringing these perspectives together can help providers understand how different pressures affect the service and make better-informed decisions about what needs to happen next.
Using Connected Information More Effectively
Care services generate a significant amount of information, but the volume of data alone does not create stronger oversight.
Information needs to be reliable, connected and presented in a way that helps managers recognise what requires attention.
Evo is Access’s integrated AI assistant. It is designed to work across the Access platform to surface relevant information, identify potential risks and highlight actions.
Because Evo is built into the platform, it can help providers make better use of information already held across their care systems.
Access is continuing to develop Evo’s capabilities, with the aim of providing more proactive support around governance activity, compliance gaps and timely intervention.
Professional judgement remains essential. The role of technology is to help leaders find and use relevant information more efficiently.
Supporting New Care Providers
The partnership can also support providers preparing to establish a new service.
Fulcrum provides practical guidance throughout the CQC registration process, from planning the application and preparing evidence to interview support and responding to CQC queries.
Access offers more than 260 CQC-compliant policies and procedures, alongside digital care planning, rostering, scheduling and compliance tools.
For a new provider, this creates an opportunity to establish suitable systems from the beginning while receiving independent guidance on the regulatory and operational requirements of the proposed service.
However, registration is only the starting point. The same systems will need to support ongoing compliance once the service begins operating.
Technology That Can Develop with the Provider
The requirements of a new care service will differ from those of an established organisation operating across multiple locations.
Access is modular, allowing providers to select the products most relevant to their current needs and introduce further capabilities as the organisation develops.
A provider might initially require care planning, policies and workforce scheduling. As the organisation grows, its priorities may extend to medication management, finance, compliance, payroll and portfolio-wide oversight.
This flexibility means the technology can develop alongside the service rather than requiring every product to be introduced at once.
An Exclusive Offer for New Access Customers
Care providers who are new Access customers and are referred through Fulcrum can receive an exclusive 15% discount on Access software monthly fees.
Our team can help providers consider which areas of the Access platform may be most relevant before arranging an introduction.
This helps providers explore systems that align with their current risks, operational requirements and plans for development.
Speak to your Fulcrum consultant or contact our team to request an introduction to Access.
Turning Insight into Sustainable Improvement
Good consultancy helps providers understand what needs to change.
Effective technology helps make those changes part of everyday service delivery.
Fulcrum brings independent regulatory, quality and operational expertise. Access provides connected systems covering care delivery, compliance, workforce management, finance and organisational oversight.
Together, the partnership can help providers move from identifying risk to implementing and sustaining practical improvement.
Find out more about the Fulcrum Care and Access partnership, including the exclusive 15% discount available to Fulcrum-referred providers.
Explore the Fulcrum and Access Partnership
To request an introduction, call 020 3411 4014 or email info@fulcrum.care.