Baobab Social Care Ltd - Somerset

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.

At our last inspection we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has remained good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 75 (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's needs were assessed before they started using the service to ensure staff understood their needs and preferences. Assessments contained information about people's care needs, care preferences, preferred times of care, any religious or cultural beliefs and their personal relationships. Each of these assessments helped form the person’s care plan.

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 good practice and standards.

Staff were aware of the need to involve people in all aspects of their care and ensured they met their assessed needs. Staff understood each person's care needs.

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services.

The provider completed an assessment prior to people using the service to ensure they could meet the person's needs safely and effectively. If a decision was reached to offer support, a care plan and risk assessments were developed, put in place and a start date agreed.

Staff worked closely with other care professionals to ensure people received safe and effective care and good practice guidelines were followed. One health care professional told us, “I would like to highlight the positive and collaborative approach of the manager [name], with the aim of continually improving the quality of care provided by his team.”

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives whenever possible.

People said they were encouraged to be as independent as possible. One person told us, “I was involved with my care plan and that is all followed properly. They [staff] encourage me to do little things for myself and they are so helpful to me.”

People saw medical professionals when they needed to. Staff told us they had a very good relationship with health professionals, including when people were in hospital. One staff member said, “I'm regularly in contact with district nurses, with GPs and with the adult social care team. I also check in with our clients and their next of kin if any client is currently in hospital to make sure that the family are being well supported and so that we know what was happening regards any treatment. We have a really good working relationship with all of the health and social care professionals who support our clients.”

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.

People were not put at risk because systems for monitoring quality were effective. Where improvements were needed, these were addressed and followed up to ensure continuous improvement.

The provider told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.

People and their relatives said people’s rights were respected and staff always sought consent before providing any care. One relative said, “They ask her consent before they do things for her and they are respectful towards her and talk nicely to her.”

There were systems in place to ensure people consented to their care, if they had capacity to do so, and to ensure the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) were followed when people lacked capacity to make decisions about their care. Details of others involved in people's care, who could support with decision making or advocate on their behalf, were included in people’s care records. Records showed the right people were consulted when a ‘best interest’ decision needed to be made for an individual who lacked capacity to make the decision themselves.