South East Focus Care Limited

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 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 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 told us they were involved in planning and reviewing their care. They said they had copies of their care plans in their homes, which they had contributed towards the development of. They told us that senior staff regularly visited them to review their care and they received an updated version of their care plan thereafter.

The provider had effective systems in place to assess people’s needs both prior to care commencing and when people’s needs changed. The registered manager reviewed information from talking to people, relatives, and reviewing assessments from health and social care professionals to develop care plans. They ensured that any related care equipment was in place, so staff were able to provide effective care.

Senior staff completed the initial care visits when care packages commenced. This helped to ensure they had a good understanding of people’s needs to induct new staff going forward. This also helped senior staff assess whether commissioned care levels were appropriate to meet the person’s needs.

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

People were happy with the support they received around eating and drinking. They told us that staff helped them prepare meals in line with their preference and were pro-active in encouraging them to eat and drink well.

The provider had policies and procedures developed in line with best practice guidance. This included policies around medicines and mental capacity. People’s nutrition and hydration needs were assessed and documented in their care plans. Where people had specialist methods of eating such as PEG, staff had received appropriate training and were confident in carrying out care in line with people’s care plans. People’s care plans contained detailed instructions around how staff should reduce risks related to eating and drinking. Where risks had been identified, staff monitored and escalated concerns to professionals, such as speech and language therapists where required. This helped to ensure people’s care plans reflected professionals’ guidance.

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.

People told us they received joined up from the provider and professionals, which helped to promote their good health and their ability to live independently in their own homes. This included collaborative work between the provider and community nursing teams to co-ordinate care efforts and share updates.

People’s care plans detailed where other stakeholders had input into their care. The provider worked effectively with stakeholders such as community nurses to ensure staff had appropriate training in using equipment or in the monitoring of people’s medical conditions. Care plans were clear in identifying the scope and limit to staff’s role. This helped to ensure they were not completing tasks outside of their level of training. This promoted a coordinated approach between stakeholders involved in people’s care.

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 that the support from staff helped promote and improve their physical and mental health.

This included providing flexible levels of care if people were unwell or required additional after suffering an injury or medical episode, such as a stroke. People told us that care visits timings were arranged flexibly to accommodate people’s healthcare appointments. This helped to ensure people could access the healthcare services they required.

People’s healthcare needs and medical histories were documented in their care plans. Care plans included detail about how people’s health and medical conditions affected their everyday life and how staff could support them to overcome difficulties. For example, one person was supported to regularly check their blood pressure to monitor for signs their medical condition was escalating. This helped the person to independently monitor this condition.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent.

People told us they had positive outcomes in relation to the care they received. This included support to promote their skin integrity, maintain independent skills and manage their medical conditions. For example, one relative told us how staff successfully supported their family member home after a prolonged hospital admission. They told us that staff were instrumental in enabling this to happen.

Senior staff monitored that key care tasks were carried out as planned. They used an alert system linked to their electronic care planning system to monitor and track that staff were carrying out care as needed. This enabled senior staff to quickly address any issues around deviations from planned care.

Staff told us they had all the information about people’s care needs available to them. They said that they were able to review people’s care plans via the electronic care planning system. This helped ensure people received the care they needed.

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

People told us that staff always asked their consent before delivering support with care tasks. They told us that staff were respectful of their choices, for example, if they did not wish to engage in personal care or take their medicines. Staff had a good understanding of The Mental Capacity Act (2005). They told us how they always sought people’s consent before each individual care task and the actions they would take if a person lacked the capacity to make decisions about their care. The provider had systems in place to ensure valid consent to care was obtained. Where people had appointed representatives to act on their behalf, the provider reviewed evidence to verify these powers. This helped to ensure only appropriate parties were involved in discussions about people’s care.