Dedicated Care East Anglia Limited

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 good. At this assessment the rating has changed to requires improvement.

This meant people were not always supported and treated with dignity and respect; and were not always involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 60 (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. We observed records that showed people were treated with kindness, compassions and dignity. People appeared happy.

We received positive feedback from people, relatives and healthcare professionals. A healthcare professional told us “I have always viewed dedicated care staff to treat people and family with kindness and compassion. They appear to be familiar with adults under their care and know them and their families well.”

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure they took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. Although we identified inconsistencies in care plans and risks assessments, the content of the care plans showed that people were treated as individuals. We observed nice interactions with staff and people. Staff understood how people communicated and expressed themselves. People lived in environments that were decorated how they wanted. The provider had celebrated success plans for people which showed how they were supported individually.

The provider did not always promote people’s independence, so people did not always know their rights and have choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. Care plans did not evidence that people were actively in control and had choice of their day to day lives. They lacked evidence of choices provided to people about how they wished to spend their day and failed to show that people were in control.

However, People were supported to maintain important relationships and the provider ensured they had access to the community and activities that they appeared to enjoy. A relative told us “Staff give lots of praise when my relative has completed a task which they love, which builds their confidence as well as their independence.”

The provider did not ensure staff always respond to people’s needs in the moment or act to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress. Staff failed to seek medical advice when people were involved in incidents. A person they supported was involved in an incident which resulted in a head injury. The staff did not seek medical advice, and the individual was on blood thinning medication, of which could significantly impact on their health. The provider’s policies advised appropriate action was required, and this aligned with national guidance, however, it was not followed.

We observed staff were able to understand and communicate well with people they supported.

The provider did not always promote the wellbeing of all their staff. They did not always support or enable staff to deliver person-centred care. The provider employed a very large workforce, and we were not assured on how they managed oversight to effectively support their wellbeing. We found instances where staff had raised concerns over the care and support people received and these were not always appropriately investigated or responded to. Staff told us they had raised concerns over conflict within their team and actions had been implemented to resolve the issue. However, there was no follow up to ensure actions had been resolved and they were still outstanding. Staff also told us, “No regular breaks only time for a break is if it is not busy, Management expect so much to be done even when it is busy or people are showing signs of escalated behaviours” and “there are times when staffing levels, unexpected changes, or additional responsibilities make the workload feel challenging. This can make it difficult to complete everything to the standard we would like while still spending quality time supporting the people we care for. I feel the workload would be more manageable with improved communication from [service manager].”

However, we also received very positive feedback from other staff about the management team. A staff member told us “Always treated really well and my seniors are always grateful; they do a lot for the managers and staff with well-being. I definitely feel very well valued and they do show this." Another staff member told us, “Dedicated Care values all members of staff within the company and ensures their mental health and wellbeing are supported at all times in addition to supporting the individuals.” We found instances where staff were referred to counselling to support their well-being.