Archived: Dorcas Home Care

Ninety- one people used this service on the day of our inspection. We found that people who used the service had various levels of need. Eight people only required staff to undertake shopping or housework tasks, 21 people had needs that required minimal support or prompting, 39 people had needs that required personal care and support, and 31 people required comprehensive care and support packages. Dorcas Home Care employed 61 staff at the time of our inspection.

During our inspection process we spoke by telephone with 11 people who used the service or their relatives and we conducted face to face discussions with six staff. We looked at 12 questionnaires that had been completed within the last two weeks by people who used the service or their relatives. We did this to give us an overview of the experiences that people had, to determine the standard of care provided and the satisfaction of the people who used the service

The completed questionnaires we looked at highlighted positive comments in terms of the staff, the care, and the overall service that had been provided. None of the people that used the service or their relatives had scored any aspect of the service as poor. The majority of people and their relatives had rated all aspects of the service as good or excellent. One person had made the following comment, 'I am very glad that your company was recommended to me'. Another person commented, 'I am very happy and content with all of my care'.

The majority of people who used the service and their relatives we spoke with by telephone were complimentary about the services provided by Dorcas Home Care. One person said, 'I am very, very pleased with everything'. Another person told us, 'We always have a laugh and a joke. I have am happy with everything and have no complaints'. A relative said, 'They really understand their health condition and needs'. Another relative told us, 'The carer is an angel. Anything we need them to do they do'.

We found that staff treated people with respect and dignity. One person who used the service commented, 'The staff are pleasant and polite'. We determined that the majority of people who used the service were more than happy with the way that their care had been planned and delivered. One person commented, 'I am happy with my care. All of my district nurses say how well the Dorcas care staff look after me.'

We found that adequate staff were provided to meet people's needs.

We determined that improvement was needed regarding staff training. This would ensure that staff had the correct knowledge and ability to care for people who may have certain health conditions and be able to respond if they had to deal with a health emergency.

We found that some systems had been used to monitor how the service had been run and people had been encouraged to give their views about the service provided.

We found that record keeping was adequate. Action had been taken to make improvements and staff training had been secured to improve record keeping further.

Feedback about the service provided from the majority of people was positive. People's comments included, 'Excellent service', and 'Very good'. Some people however, had not been happy with the service due to late or missed calls. One person commented, 'The service is poor and I am disappointed'.

Evidence we gathered confirmed that the majority of people were given choices and their views had been taken into consideration. People confirmed that the majority of staff were polite.

We identified that some people's calls had been late and a small proportion had been missed. A small proportion of care records did not adequately highlight people's full needs to give assurance that these would be met.

Staff gave a good account of what they would do if they were concerned about anything or witnessed abuse.

Recruitment processes were adequate to give confidence that checking processes had been completed before staff started to provide care to the people using this service.

We found that systems had been used to monitor how the service had been run and people had been encouraged to raise concerns.