Allfor Care Alpha Care Recruitment West and Home Care Service Limited

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

This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 67 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People’s support needs were assessed before their care started. Relatives confirmed they were involved in the initial review of their family member’s care needs to develop their care plan and regularly met with senior staff to review the assessment to identify any changes in needs. Care workers told us they visited the same people regularly, so they knew the person’s needs. The registered manager confirmed that care plans were reviewed every 6 months or sooner if there was a change in a person’s care needs.

Staff were supported to provide care based on best practice. Staff told us they completed a range of training courses in addition to the mandatory training to meet people’s specific support needs. These training courses included epilepsy, diabetes, learning disability and autism, catheter care and stoma care. The registered manager told us they shared bast practice in relation to providing care with people and relatives when developing the care plans and risk assessments.

If a person required support with preparation of meals it was detailed in their care plan. The care plan included guidance on how to support them to make choices about their food preferences and if a food and fluid chart needed to be completed to help monitor their nutrition and hydration. Care workers recorded when they had supported the person with producing a meal.

Care workers felt supported by the senior staff, office staff and other care workers. Their comments included “The best thing about working for this care company is the opportunity to make a positive impact on clients’ lives being part of a supportive team” and “The whole team is supportive, and it creates a positive impact to work with the clients.” The registered manager explained they monitored the records of care completed by care workers to ensure this reflected the person’s care plan. The information recorded following a visit could be accessed by other care workers who were visiting the person which meant people received consistent care and support.

People were supported to live a healthier life and received the support they needed with any medical conditions. Care plans and risk assessments identified any health conditions the person was living with. The care plans included guidance on the oral healthcare needs of the person and if they required support from the care worker.

People’s care plans identified goals and outcomes in relation to their health, wellbeing and care needs but these did not always relate to goals which could be achieved by the person. The outcomes and goals for 1 person related to how the care workers could provide safe care for example maintain good hand hygiene and providing 1 to 1 support during personal care. The outcomes and objectives in the care plans for other people did not indicate how they could be achieved and monitored. This meant that people did not always have outcomes identified which provided care workers with guidance on how to support the person with actions to develop their skills, strengths, goals and meet their wishes. We discussed this with the registered manager so they could make improvements to these records.

The provider had a process to assess if a person was able to make decisions about their care, but this did not always reflect who had legal authority to make decisions on a person’s behalf. The registered manager explained that following as part of the initial assessment of needs they reviewed the person’s ability to make decisions about their own care by undertaking mental capacity assessments. If the person was unable to consent to their care best interest decisions were carried out to ensure care was provided in the least restrictive manner possible. We saw that the best interest decisions for some people who were unable to make decisions a family member/representative had made decisions about the care. There were no indications if the family member/representative had the legal authority to make decisions on the person’s behalf.

Care workers had completed training on mental capacity and how this related to the provision of care. Care workers confirmed they regularly reviewed people’s care plans, and they visited the same group of people, so they knew how to support them. Relatives told us staff care workers spoke to their family member and explained what support they were going to provide. A relative told us, “Communication is important, and they talk with [family member] before doing anything.” The registered manager confirmed that currently people were asked to sign a consent to care form when they agreed their care plan and it was recorded on the electronic care plan that the person had consented to their care.