Minster Homecare

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence.

At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has changed to requires improvement. This meant the effectiveness of people’s care, treatment and support did not always achieve good outcomes or was inconsistent.

The service was in breach of legal regulation in relation to governance at the service.

This service scored 58 (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 did not always make sure people’s care and treatment were effective because they did not always check people’s health, care and wellbeing needs, and ensure support plans reflected all assessed needs. There were some gaps in people’s support plans, and some information from other professionals which had not been incorporated into people’s support plans. We found no evidence of impact and the provider was in the process of reviewing and updating all care plans and risk assessments. People told us they were generally involved in their care plans and were able to access these via an app they were able to download to their phones. People told us the initial assessment process ran smoothly. One person told us, “Yes the initial assessment did run smoothly, they came up with a package of what they could do and what I wanted.”

The provider delivered people’s care and treatment in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards. Staff had received up to date training in best practice methods of support and had their competencies checked. The provider’s induction covered the core principles of care and staff received face to face training in areas such as moving and handling to ensure their knowledge remained in line with current best practice standards.

The provider did not always work well across teams and services. The provider did not have an effective way of efficiently and swiftly sharing people’s needs when people moved between different services. The provider told us how communication and relationships with other healthcare professionals had recently improved, and the new manager made contact with relevant professionals to obtain up to date information and discuss any issues. The new manager was implementing emergency healthcare passports which would contain all up-to-date information which could be shared with other services when needed.

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support. The provider actively advocated to the local authority for people who needed longer support calls or additional social support calls to improve the quality of their care and the quality of their lives. The provider liaised with a local housing association to support a person to move into supported living accommodation which increased their independence and quality of life.

The provider did not always routinely monitor people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. We found omissions in monitoring charts for people where required, such as the monitoring of food and fluid intake and catheter outputs. We found no evidence of impact or harm, but these omissions had not been identified within the provider’s quality assurances processes. These omissions could have potentially impacted outcomes for people. The new manager implemented charts and frequent relevant audits immediately following our feedback.

Staff always sought consent from people before carrying out any task and this was clearly recorded. One person told us, “Staff always ask for permission before providing care.”

However, people had not always signed their care plans to indicate overall consent. Sometimes a family member had signed the care plan without a clear explanation as to why the person themselves had not signed to indicate their consent. The provider took steps to address this following our feedback.