Upscale Care Limited

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – this means we looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture.

This is the first assessment for this newly registered service. This key question has been rated Good. This meant the service was consistently managed and well-led. Leaders and the culture they created promoted high-quality, person-centred care.

This service scored 68 (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 had a shared vision, strategy and culture. This was based on transparency, equity, equality and human rights, diversity and inclusion, engagement, and understanding challenges and the needs of people and their communities.

The provider had a shared vision and culture that promoted respectful, person‑centred care. The registered manager demonstrated clear values around kindness, dignity and openness, which were consistently described across management interviews and staff feedback. Staff understood the service’s expectations and described a positive working culture focused on supporting people safely and compassionately.

Staff told us they enjoyed working for the service and felt motivated by helping people. One staff member said, “I enjoy working for the service. Helping people gives me joy… it is a rewarding job”. Another described the registered manager as “very open” and said team meetings were used to share ideas and learning.

The registered manager showed commitment to learning and improvement and were reflective about areas needing development, particularly documentation quality and governance systems.

However, the service’s culture and strategic direction relied heavily on the registered manager, which limited the extent to which the vision was consistently embedded through formal systems and records. We saw evidence of involvement from external training providers and input from a consultant in health and social care.

The provider had inclusive leaders at all levels who understood the context in which they delivered care, treatment and support and embodied the culture and values of their workforce and organisation. Leaders had the skills, knowledge, experience and credibility to lead effectively. They did so with integrity, openness and honesty.

The registered manager demonstrated commitment to delivering compassionate, inclusive care and supporting staff wellbeing. Staff consistently described feeling supported and able to approach management with concerns or ideas.

Staff told us the registered manager was supportive and checked on wellbeing, confidence and fatigue, and encouraged additional training where needed. The registered manager described matching staff to people’s cultural and language needs and promoting respectful care as a core expectation of practice.

The provider was open about service limitations and actively sought external advice and training to strengthen practice.

The provider fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard.

The provider promoted an open culture where staff felt able to raise concerns without fear. Staff described feeling confident to report safety issues, poor practice or changes in people’s needs, and understood the importance of documenting and escalating concerns.

One staff member told us, “Yes, I feel able to raise concerns… management will review the daily logs and if we need to update care plans, we can”.

The registered manager described encouraging openness and having a whistleblowing policy in place. Staff confirmed they were able to approach the registered manager with any concerns regarding poor practice.

The provider valued diversity in their workforce. They worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who worked for them.

The provider promoted equality, diversity and inclusion and demonstrated an inclusive approach to staff and people’s needs. The registered manager showed good understanding of equality principles and described reasonable adjustments for staff, including dyslexia support, and matching staff to people’s cultural and communication needs.

Staff described a respectful working environment and inclusive culture. However, examples of how equality and diversity principles were monitored and embedded in everyday practice were limited, and some staff required prompting to recall protected characteristics during interviews, indicating a need to strengthen practical application and recording.

The provider had clear responsibilities, roles, systems of accountability and good governance. They used these to manage and deliver good quality, sustainable care, treatment and support. They acted on the best information about risk, performance and outcomes, and shared this securely with others when appropriate.

Governance and management systems were in place to monitor service delivery; however, these were not always effective in identifying inconsistencies found in care documentation and recruitment records. The registered manager took immediately action to address gaps identified during the assessment, providing an action plan and alongside evidence of improvements implemented. Regular audits, spot checks, supervision were carried out and the registered manager demonstrated reflective leadership and willingness to address areas for development to ensure future sustainability and continuous improvement.

The provider understood their duty to collaborate and work in partnership, so services worked seamlessly for people.

The provider had limited formal partnership working at the time of inspection. The registered manager described understanding how health and social care professionals would be involved when required and gave examples of contacting GPs and local authority teams as needed.

However, there was little evidence of active or ongoing multi-disciplinary working, and community engagement was limited due to the small size of the service and low number of people supported. Partnership arrangements were largely reactive rather than embedded, which reduced opportunities for shared learning and coordinated care.

The provider focused on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation and local system. They encouraged creative ways of delivering equality of experience, outcome and quality of life for people. They actively contributed to safe, effective practice and research.

The provider demonstrated a positive learning culture and commitment to improvement. The registered manager described using incidents, feedback and inspection findings to reflect and improve practice, with learning shared through supervision and team meetings.

Staff described team meetings as a forum for sharing learning and improvements, and one staff member gave an example of learning around improving the quality of daily recording. Leaders also described plans to improve systems, including exploring digital solutions as the service develops.

The registered manager demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement and addressed areas found during our inspection, including developing an action plan detailing areas for improvement and immediate actions taken. However, improvements require consistency and time for these to be embedded over time