Wiltshire Support At Home Service

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.

This is the first assessment for this newly registered service. This key question has been rated good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 79 (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 made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them. People told us their needs had been assessed when they started to use the service. For people who had been in hospital their assessment started as soon as they had been screened for discharge. The provider also provided a ‘first responder’ service, which supported people identified as needing support, for example to prevent a hospital admission. People’s needs were regularly reviewed at a weekly multi-disciplinary meeting. Staff told us they received good information about people’s needs, which was updated quickly when needs changed.

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards. People told us staff provided good support to meet their needs, including support to prepare meals and drinks and to stay healthy. Staff completed training in nutrition and food safety to ensure their knowledge was up to date.

The provider always worked well across teams and services to support people. They shared thorough assessments of people’s needs when they moved between different services, so people only needed to tell their story once. People told us staff worked well with other services, such as community nurses and GPs, to ensure they received the care they need.

All of the professional partners we contacted provided positive feedback about the way the service worked with them to ensure people’s needs were met. Comments included, “The team at Wiltshire Support at Home Service are just so lovely, very helpful and always knowledgeable about the patients we share”; “[The service] works very well with partners across the system. This includes the acute hospitals, reablement services, the community health teams and the social work teams.[They] are able to access systems and share information to ensure a person’s information is transferred appropriately, minimising the need for repetition and duplication.”

The service used electronic recording systems that were accessible to other professionals where relevant, for example social workers. This enabled information to be shared and reduced the need for people to repeat information to professionals. Staff told us the systems for working with other services were effective and enabled them to ensure people received the support and input they needed quickly.

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support. People told us they were supported to use a range of health services, including the GP, community nurses and physiotherapists. Staff reported any changes to people’s health, which were reviewed in weekly multi-disciplinary meetings. This ensured people had input from health and social care services where needed.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves. Staff maintained records of the care they had provided and observations of people, for example, how much food and fluid they had taken or their skin condition. Records demonstrated changes were shared with healthcare professionals where needed.

The provider told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment. People told us staff gained their consent before providing any care for them. Staff demonstrated a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act and consent issues. Staff understood the need to follow the best interest decision making process if people were assessed to lack capacity to consent to a specific decision.