Walfinch Reigate & Horsham

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 newly 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 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 always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

People we spoke with were complimentary of the care staff team. One person said, “Staff are overall very nice.” Another person told us, “I feel they are very considerate.” A further person added, “We’ve had wonderful carers.” The registered manager told us finding the right staff started at the recruitment stage. They said, “We’ve got a 10 out of 10 score on homecare.co.uk and that’s something we are really proud of with the team. I’ve always been selective with who we hire. ‘I’ve been on the other side of parents receiving poor care and its important they’re the right fit for us.”

The compliance manager told us checks were completed to ensure staff were delivering kind and compassionate care. They said, “We do care note audits, observations, and by checking staff members’ values in team meetings and the culture they build.”

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took into account people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Care plans included in-depth information on people’s life history and background. This allowed staff to take an interest in their life and offer topics of conversation for them. One staff member told us, “I got to know [person] well, and we all have a good relationship, which I feel is very helpful in any case, but especially when the carer lives in the family home. Building trust and making my client comfortable is my priority.”

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Staff were aware of the importance of promoting people’s independence and giving them choices where possible. One staff member told us, “It’s about listening to what they want and providing care that is bespoke to them, from how they like their potatoes cooked to informing the office if they say refused medication.”

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 told us they felt empowered to make decisions and have their views understood. One person told us, “I prefer a mature lady rather than a youngster. I’m paying so I feel that I should be able to pick the carer that I like. I’ve only refused one carer and turned her away.” Other people also told us of situations when they had not bonded well with a staff member and had requested a new carer which had been fulfilled by the management team.

The provider cared about and promoted the well-being of their staff, and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.

There were multiple well-being incentives in place for staff. This included naming carers of the month within the monthly newsletter, who would win a free tank of petrol as a reward. The managing director told us, “We like to communicate regularly with the team as they’re going from home to home and making single calls. We work on an open-door policy so they can come to us. We would like to have regular meetings with the team, we do a quarterly social, we did a summer party, will have a Christmas party too.”