Pro Healthcare Services

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• 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 did not always feel well-supported, cared for or treated with dignity and respect.

This service scored 50 (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 treat people with kindness, empathy and compassion, or respect their privacy and dignity. Staff did not always treat colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

People and relatives told us staff were caring, but we also received feedback indicating some staff's attitude was perceived as confrontational or not showing compassion. A relative told us, “Some carers are very friendly and very caring. Some carers show more empathy than others.”

There was a lack of evidence of care plans detailing people and relatives being involved in reviewing people’s care.

The provider did not always treat people as individuals or make sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They did not always take account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Care planning was not consistently personalised, with records often lacking detail or reflecting generic information. People’s preferences were not always known or recorded in care plans, for example, the preferred gender of staff supporting people with personal care.

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.

While policies were in place, care planning and risk assessments did not consistently support people to make informed decisions. Records showed limited information being described about people’s care needs and risk assessments that were not detailed and person centred.

People’s preferences were not always captured or reflected in practice. Some people described care being delivered around staff availability rather than their own choices, for example being required to follow set routines. A person told us, “I have to go to bed at 8 o’clock because the carers have to travel back. It is a long time to be in bed, twelve hours or more.”

During our visit to the service, we found limited evidence of reviews taking place. The provider submitted additional evidence showing these were taking place. However, evidence gathered showed examples where actions identified as needed to support people with their mobility, for example, had not been taken in a timely way.

The provider did not always listen to and understand people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff did not always respond to people’s needs in the moment or act to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

There was consistent feedback that visits were late or shorter than planned, and people and relatives were not always informed of this. One person told us, “They do not always let me know if they are going to be late.” These issues meant people were sometimes left waiting or had tasks incomplete, affecting their safety and wellbeing.

The provider did not always care about and promote the wellbeing of their staff. They did not always support or enable staff to deliver person-centred care.

Staff told us managers were approachable, and records reviewed showed staff had regular supervisions. However, we identified concerns with how rotas were managed such as no travel time being allocated and staff reporting concerns with mileage arrangements. These arrangements placed pressure on staff wellbeing.

Staff shared mixed feedback about how well supported they felt to carry on their jobs safely and to be able to balance their work and family commitments and responsibilities. A staff member described how it was easy to reschedule their scheduled shifts with the office if they needed to attend personal appointments. Another staff member told us about the negative impact that mileage deductions had on their wellbeing.