Arc 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, dignity and respect. This is the first assessment for this registered service. This key question has been rated good.

This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 70 (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. We received positive comments from people such as, “They’re very kind, they just care for [Person] the same way I do really, they approach [Person] respectfully,” and “They go above and beyond.” Staff described the individual approach they took to ensure they treated people with kindness.

Leaders carried out regular checks with service users and their relatives, which assured them staff were delivering care in line with the organisation’s values. Where staff had not worked in line with organisation values, appropriate action had been taken, including disciplinary action where needed. Partners told us, “Staff are very kind they listen and work well with the manager. Staff can speak to their manager who always points them in the right direction. We haven’t had any negative feedback from people using the service.”

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. One person told us, “They help look after my mental health, [Staff] sits me down and talks to me and makes me feel better in myself and raises me up.” A staff member told us, “I support individuals to make their decisions as much as possible.”

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. One person told us, “I say to [Staff] can we do this or can we do that, they’re always very willing.” Staff demonstrated how they supported people to be independent and how they offered people choice and control. One staff member commented, “I support a person who can do certain things for themselves, they will walk to the fridge and take things out that they like. I will disinfect the surfaces so they can make a sandwich themself and I make sure I give them the room to do what they want.” People’s care records demonstrated individual information about people and how they should be supported to maximise their independence.

The provider listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress. People provided positive feedback such as, “[Staff] went in one morning and found [Person] had fallen, they contacted me, and they waited until I got there.” Staff demonstrated an understanding of who to contact when people needed urgent help or support or experienced discomfort, distress or concern. For example, one staff member told us, “I try my best to make them happy and be patient with them, I give them respect and make them comfortable.”

The provider did not always promote the well-being of their staff, and we received mixed feedback from staff. For example, some staff told us they felt ‘overworked’ and sometimes did not have regular days off or had to work long periods of time before they had a day off. They told us this impacted on their well-being. Leaders told us, “Staff have the option to opt in or out of the working above the working time directive. We look at our rotas and we try and alternate and give staff 2 days off if that is possible, so they can recuperate and get back to their strength. We also monitor the hours they have done and tell them they can work if they want but also tell them when we think they need a break.” We identified from the rota’s submitted there was evidence of some staff working long periods without regular break. For example, one staff member had worked 16 consecutive days without a full day break. This meant some staff did not have regular time off over a long period of time which could impact on their well-being.

However, most staff we spoke with were positive about their experiences of the well-being initiatives in the service. For example, they told us, “We have Christmas dinners which are really cute and every month we have a day where we come into the office on people’s birthdays and they will get a cake.”

Leaders told us staff had access to a 24-hour employee assistance programme which had a confidential telephone counselling service. Staff also had access to an online wellbeing tool which could be used to find information quickly about any wellbeing questions they wanted to ask. There was a well-being policy and leaders told us they worked alongside employees to create a personal plan for staff who had expressed concerns about their mental health. The provider had supportive initiatives in place to help people integrate into their community and roles before they arrived to work in the UK such as linking staff up with local landlords and meeting them at the airport.