Timeswitch Care

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,dignityand respect.

This is the first assessment for this service. This key question has been ratedrequires improvement.This meant people did not always feel well-supported, caredforor treated with dignity and respect.

This service scored 55 (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.
Professionals we spoke with provided positive feedback regarding care staff. People we spoke with provided positive feedback regarding the care they received from the service. One relative told us, “[The carer] is absolutely brilliant.”
 

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.

Although some elements of people's likes and preferences were documented in care plans, documentation did not always fully detail important information. For example, health needs such as diabetes or mental health needs. This information was not always present, or well documented. There was a lack of relevant documented information to support people’s individual needs to be met holistically. People and relatives, we spoke with told us staff were flexible to meet their individual needs. One relative told us, “The carer works around [other appointments], I phone [carer] when [my relative] returns and [the carer] is quickly there.”
 

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 documentation provided some information as to how to support people to maximise their independence, however, there was a lack of identified goals people wished for themselves to improve and maintain independence. There were also restrictive practices in place without the relevant legal documentation. The provider took immediate action to rectify concerns raised and advised us how they will make improvements in this area.

People we spoke positively regarding staff supporting people with independence, choice and control. One relative told us, “The carer always stays with [my relative] whilst eating and encourages [them].”

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.
The provider did not have robust systems or processes in place to provide oversight of whether people’s immediate needs were met. There was a call monitoring system in place, to ascertain whether staff stayed for the full call duration, however, there was no audit or analysis of call monitoring undertaken by leaders in the service, to monitor any emerging patterns or trends. The provider assured us they will implement a call monitoring audit system immediately. People we spoke with told us their immediate needs were met. One relative told us, “[The carer] is always on time.”
 

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.

There was a staff wellbeing policy in place. However, this was not followed by leaders in the service. For example, the policy advised the provider should have a proactive focus to staff wellbeing including, a supervision programme, debrief programme and staff wellness days. We were not provided with any evidence as to how this policy was being met. Care records were not always appropriately updated to reflect people’s current needs, and staff were not always provided with holistic training. Therefore, staff were not supported to deliver person centred care. Staff told us they were supported with their wellbeing. One staff member told us, “The manager rings daily to check if I am ok, if I am tired and need a rest.” The provider has advised how they will improvements to support staff including a full review of staff support.