Delore Care Eastbourne

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – this means we looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture.

This is the first full assessment for this newly registered service. This key question has been rated good. This meant the service was consistently managed and well-led. Leaders and the culture they created promoted high-quality, person-centred care.

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 service had a shared vision, strategy and culture. This was based on transparency, equity, equality and human rights, diversity and inclusion, engagement, and understanding challenges and the needs of people and their communities. Part two of the equality and diversity policy provided detailed information on all the main religions of the country with advice on important religious festivals, traditions, and possible cultural implications for example in relation to food preferences, personal care and hygiene. A staff member told us they discussed topics like culture and diversity in monthly meetings, how people’s needs differed and topics of conversation to make people feel safe.

The agency had inclusive leaders at all levels who understood the context in which they delivered care, treatment and support and embodied the culture and values of their workforce and organisation. All the staff we spoke with gave positive feedback about the leadership and management of the service and told us they felt valued and listened to. Staff told us the registered manager and their line managers provided them with the support they needed to do their job.

The agency fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard. Staff told us they had monthly meetings where they were invited to share their views on a range of different matters including the care people received. Staff raised issues such as people refusing support and call times running over when people’s needs were changing. In all cases this triggered a review of the package of care. Staff told us they felt comfortable raising issues and were confident they would be addressed. A staff member said, “Staff meetings are good, your contribution is valued, and you are encouraged to speak up.” Another told us, “Yes the managers are always available and listen, the line is always open.”

The agency valued diversity in their workforce. They worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who worked for them. Staff had completed equality and diversity training and told us they felt supported by the management team. The service had a particularly detailed equality and diversity policy that set out the expectations of the organisation to ensure people’s holistic needs could be met and that staff would be recruited without bias.

We did not look at Governance, management and sustainability during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

The agency understood their duty to collaborate and work in partnership, so services worked seamlessly for people. The registered manager told us they worked with a range of stakeholders and professionals to help make sure people received continuity in their care. People and relatives gave examples of the service working in partnership with other agencies, including the local authority and community nurses. A professional told us, “They have been proactive and did their best in a very difficult situation. The agency always replies to emails and if appropriate other professionals are also copied in.” The registered manager told us they made regular donations to a charity that helped to provide food parcels to families in need. They were particularly proud of the high numbers of people that had been supported by them and were hoping to arrange to meet some of the people that had been helped.

Whilst the agency encouraged creative ways of delivering equality of experience, outcome and quality of life for people, the records in place to demonstrate this were not always sufficiently detailed. There were monthly staff meetings and ‘upskilling’ meetings which were used as opportunities for learning and development and all staff told us they valued these. The upskilling meetings were in addition to formal training that had been provided in each topic area. Minutes included a summary of training provided. However, for any staff that had not attended the meeting, the minutes were not sufficiently detailed for example, in relation to the management of epilepsy. We also found insufficient advice regarding the use of hot water bottles. We discussed these topics with management and were assured they were discussed fully but work was needed to make sure records were more detailed. The service improvement plan set out how the organisation would operate but there was no assessment of the service in relation to how they were achieving this. In relation to spot checks for staff, we noted that a person was told that call times would be monitored but, in the actions to be taken, following the check, there was no reference to any further monitoring needed. In a person’s care records, there were two occasions when the person said they were not well when asked. There was no evidence this had been explored with them. In another person’s care notes we saw that when a person was emotionally distressed and shouting abusively, there was no record of the detail of the abuse, action taken by staff to support the person or the impact this had on the staff member. We were assured that when issues were identified the staff member raised these with the office staff and action was taken. The agency recognised that additional work was needed to demonstrate more clearly the actions taken. Staff told us they had opportunities to train and develop their career paths further.