PCAS Kent Ltd

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

Caring – this means we looked for evidence that the provider involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 80 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

People told us staff were kind, friendly and approachable. We observed a number of positive interactions throughout the assessment. Staff had an open, friendly rapport with people and most staff knew people very well. Care provided was person centred, people were treated with respect and were supported to spend their time how the chose. Staff knew people’s personalities and preferences and were able to ensure people were comfortable and happy.

People told us they all liked the staff. Comments included, “I like to chat with staff. The staff are kind”, “I like the staff. They knock on the door” and “Staff are kind, all staff are my favourite.”

A relative told us staff were “Kind and caring, when I go over, they sit with us and chat and laugh.” Other relatives said, “Staff are always happy to talk and kind, no problems with them. When I go to the door and pick him up, they all come and say hello and say what he’s been doing” and “They are very kind and caring I sleep easy knowing that he is there. They do treat him with a lot of respect and dignity.”

A relative had emailed the provider during the assessment to provide feedback following them visiting their loved one. They said, ‘[Person] was in good spirits, she looks very well and was incredibly happy. It’s always good to catchup with her and her care team with whom she has a great relationship and trust (very reassuring for me).’

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Staff showed us records which included photographs of people being supported. For example, we were shown pictures of the activities people were doing such as bowling, afternoon tea, pancake day and people’s birthdays. A staff member told us about a person who had a birthday party with reggae musicians as that is what the person liked.

The provider was exceptional at promoting people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. People were involved with recruiting and training staff. A person told us, “I have a job doing Oliver McGowan training. I tell staff about how to support me.” They had also written a letter to the provider detailing their experience. They had written, ‘PCAS have gave me so much to look forward to such as a job, activities and I am even learning and interviewing with the staff.’ Another person told us how proud they were of working. They said, “I am employed by PCAS as an expert by experience for recruiting new staff.”

People knew their rights and were supported to understand these; information packs were available at each person’s home and new people who received support from the service were given copies of this. People told us they visited properties and met with potential house mates before moving in and receiving support. A person said, “Before I moved here, I visited the house and met with others, I chose my room. I chose the paint colour, it is silver.” Another person told us, “I chose the colour of my room, it is red.”

The provider listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

We observed staff responding to people’s needs in a timely manner. For example, a person became distressed and overexcited, they began to raise their voice. Staff supported the person to go to a private place away from other people, talk about the problem and resolve this.

We observed staff responding to people’s needs physically, verbally and through use communication devices. Relatives told us staff communicated effectively with their loved ones. Some people had support from waking night staff or sleep in staff. They told us staff were responsive at night too. A person said, “At night we have a sleep-in staff. If we need anything we can ask.”

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.

There was a staff forum in place, wellbeing drop-in sessions were held monthly. Staff were enabled to attend via video call, telephone or in person. The human resources (HR) team held HR surgeries, they attended team meetings virtually or in person. Two of these were held per month. During these HR shared information about initiatives, taken feedback from staff and suggestions. There was a culture steering group in place, a gestures and thanks process and they were actively encouraging staff to get involved.

Some staff we spoke with didn’t know about all the initiatives. The provider’s staff survey results had shown the provider that not all staff were aware of wellbeing support available and they had set an action to improve this. A staff member said, “I think they have classes for supporting your wellbeing. I haven’t been.”