Raising the quality of care
Reimagining the future of competency assessments
Regulators are looking for digitalisation, greater efficiency, less reliance on paper, and stronger governance to improve care. Historically, this hasn’t been easy to achieve. Paul Blane is leading the conversation with his new platform Confident Competence.
The challenge to measure competency efficiently is firmly on the agenda. Confident Competence has the solution.
The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 states that providers must ensure sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff to meet the needs of the people using the service at all times. Managing this can be challenging, with stretched budgets and an ongoing staffing crisis across the sector.
Competency is mentioned in CQC Standards 17, 18, 19. Regulators across Scotland, Ireland and Wales are also on the case. Care providers are increasingly being asked to prove competency during inspections.
Increasing scrutiny, decreasing budgets and confusion over how to manage the two
Governments across the UK and Northern Ireland have acknowledged challenges within health and social care and have shown a desire for change. The government is under scrutiny for failing to provide the budgets needed. In turn, they’re passing the onus back onto health and social care providers demanding greater efficiency and more effective spending.
Paul Blane, Health and Social Care trainer and CEO, explained:
“Providers are being asked how they are measuring competence during inspections. This isn’t the occasional inspector, it’s nationwide. They’re being asked where the records are kept, and how they’re being used. We saw this coming and we wanted to offer a solution to help care providers answer these questions easily without increasing their workload.”
The need to implement a clear system to measure competency in the moment, in an authentic way, while also being able to track progress is needed now more than ever.
Building a culture of competence across health and social care
The challenges are clear, but the solution to overcoming them is less well-defined. Providers are left to create their own frameworks and processes. This opens them up to criticism from Inspectors, who are increasingly asking about competency during visits.
Paul Blane, CEO, is launching a brand new competency measurement platform. He explains:
“I could see there was a real need to improve the way competency was measured. As a care home owner myself, I knew measuring competency was a challenge. That’s why I created Confident Competence. It provides care teams with access to standardised frameworks. It enables them to undertake assessments and monitor compliance all in one place.”
By embedding a culture of competence through structured, tech-driven assessment systems, and facilitating open face-to-face conversations, healthcare providers can ensure they meet regulatory demands while improving workforce efficiency and care outcomes.
Competence in your pocket
Founded by Paul Blane, Confident Competence launched a couple of months ago and is taking the industry by storm, offering providers a platform to accurately and authentically measure competence in real-life settings. Since his first job as a care worker, Paul Blane has always believed competence is at the heart of great care. As a care home owner and CEO of Care Business Associates Training (CBAT) he is now merging his two passions and launching a brand new company that is far from traditional classroom training or e-learning.
Confident Competence helps providers manage and monitor competence across their teams more effectively. A brand new competency toolkit that lives in your pocket, it provides an accurate, authentic way to measure competence in real-life settings.
The new mobile app offers a comprehensive, standardised and fully compliant competency framework library, which is also fully customisable. The app means that assessments can be carried out while people go about their daily work. Better than that, it encourages people who access health or social care support to be actively involved in their care. The result is an open, honest and supportive conversation around competence between managers, staff and people accessing care.
With Confident Competence, teams can easily identify training gaps and balance skills across care teams, contributing to long-term improvements.
CEO, Paul Blane, shares:
“We saw a problem and we wanted to help.Confident Competence is designed to make measuring competency simpler, more cost-effective and much more supportive. We're excited to be showcasing the platform at the Care innovation Summit on the 19th June 2025!"