Walfinch Reigate & Horsham

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 71 (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 did not always make sure people’s care and treatment were effective because they did not always check and discuss people’s health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

The provider completed assessments of people’s needs prior to delivering care to them. This ensured people’s needs could be met by the service. The managing director told us care plans were reviewed every 3 months. However, people’s care plans were not always reviewed effectively, meaning care plans did not always accurately reflect people’s needs. One staff member told us, “Care plans do not always cover the true situation.” This left people at risk of not receiving the support they required.

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.

One person had been prescribed exercises to complete daily at home by a physiotherapist. Staff supported them to complete this. Details of the exercises required were available in a hard copy at the person’s home as well as on the provider’s electronic monitoring system.

The electronic monitoring system also had built in functionality that linked to evidence-based care and treatment. For example, when scoring a person’s risk level in relation to their nutrition, the system would automatically assign them a Multi Universal Screening Tool (MUST) score. This is a nationally recognised tool used to assess the risk of malnutrition in adults based on factors such as weight loss and acute disease effect.

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.

Staff completed care notes during each care call to ensure the next staff member supporting that person had the information they required. This included whether they had eaten well or not, or if there were any concerns about their health. The managing director told us, “We ask the carers to check the notes from the previous visit as standard.” Staff were also able to assign ‘follow up tasks’ to the management team. These would allow the management team to follow up on any concerns with a person within the hour.

Staff also used an app to communicate important information with each other. One staff member told us, " When I joined the company, [an electronic app] group was made that includes me and all the office staff. Most communication is done through that, and I can also contact any of [the management team] privately if I noticed my message hasn't been pickedup or I need an answer straight away.”

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.

The provider had created a social club in the local area named Thrive. The club held exercise classes and events for all the people the provider supported and their families, free of charge. The managing director told us they were also in the process of organising an older person’s dance class within this.

Relatives felt staff promoted a healthy lifestyle with their family members. One relative told us, “[Person] is encouraged to dress and use the stairlift and come down on the days that he’s feeling good and able.” This aided people’s mental well-being alongside their physical health.

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.

The provider used a geo location system to electronically monitor care visits. This was to ensure staff could only log in to the system to confirm arrival at a care visit within a certain radius of a person’s home. This ensured that staff were arriving for care calls and allowed the provider to monitor the length of the care call to confirm it was in line with the person’s commissioned care. Where discrepancies were identified, these were reviewed by management and followed up to ensure people received the care they were entitled to.

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

Care plans included information about any relatives who held power of attorney for the people they were supporting. This allowed staff to contact the power of attorney should they require any action or decisions to be made in relation to a person’s health or finances.

Staff were aware of how the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 implicated the way they supported people. A staff member told us, “One has to assume that the adult has capacity to make their own decisions. Ensure that any decisions that are made are in the client’s best interest.” For example, people who were deemed to have capacity to manage their own medicines were supported to do this. This encouraged them to remain independent with this task as long as possible.