Bionicare (Domiciliary Care Agency)

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

People’s care plans were not always as detailed as they could be in relation to how to support them with their specific needs or preferences. Staffing levels meant some aspects of people’s care plans would not be able to be followed effectively. Staff were not always monitoring and supporting people to achieve their desired outcomes.

Staff knew people well and supported them in line with the Accessible information standard (AIS). People felt safe to speak up if they had a concern. People were very happy with their support and the relationships they had with the staff team. People were supported to speak about what they wanted to achieve in the future.

This service scored 68 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People’s care plans contained some good and detailed information about their preferences likes and dislikes. However, this was not consistent and for some support needs, care plans would have benefitted from more detail to help guide staff how to support people. For example, some people were living with specific health conditions, however there was limited information about how this impacted their lives and what staff could do to support them with this. Some people’s care plans noted they needed 1 to 1 staff support in certain scenarios to help support them to feel better. However, this would not have been possible with the current ways staffing was being managed (we have discussed this in detail in the ‘Staffing’ quality statement.) This meant people were not always supported with person-centred care in line with their care plans.

People told us staff supported them well and understood their preferences, likes and dislikes. One person said, ‘‘The staff all get on well with us here and know how to help us when we need it. They help pick me up when I am down and know just what to do to help me feel better.’’ Another person told us, ‘‘The staff have got to know me as well as I know myself. They support me really well and I have never been happier.’’ Staff knew people well and told us about their likes and dislikes and how they supported them in line with these.

People had good experiences when they started living at the service and told us the management and staff team supported them to integrate in to using the service in a way that supported them well. One person said, ‘‘I have had bad experiences using other services before but this time it was brilliant. It felt like I was coming home.’’ People also told us staff supported them well when it came to going to appointments. One person said, ‘‘[Staff] take me to appointments if I feel I might need some support. They help me feel calm and relaxed and help me explain how I am feeling to [professionals] so they can give me the right support.’’

People told us they saw a consistent staff team and how this made them feel well supported. Staff also told us they and other staff members had worked at the service for some time enabling them to build strong relationships with people. One person said, ‘‘Most of the staff team have been here since I started using the service, so I know them, and they know me.’’

The staff and management team provided information to people on a regular basis in group and 1 to 1 meetings. No one using the service needed additional support with communication however the management team and provider had plans in place to support this if needed. This included producing information in accessible formats such as easy read or large print. Staff had a good understanding of the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) and told us how they could support people in different ways. For example, using signs or pictures to support people. One person said, ‘‘We have regular meetings and staff always talk to us about what is going on. The management team come and see us regularly to keep us up to date with what is going on at the service as well.’’

People felt listened to and felt involved in the running of the service and all aspects of their support and care planning. They also told us they were involved in discussing their care plans and risk assessments and that their feedback about these was used to update them regularly. One person said, ‘‘There is not a day goes by that a staff member or a [member of the management team] doesn’t ask us how things are going or ask us to let them know if anything could be better.’’ Another person told us, ‘‘We sit and talk about my care plan all the time to make sure it is up to date and to make sure I am happy with it.’’ Staff told us how they spoke with people regularly and fed their feedback back to the management team. The provider and registered manager were passionate about listening to people and told us this was a fundamental value of the service.

People were supported to access healthcare services when they needed this support. One health professional said, ‘‘Thanks to the support of the staff team [person] visits us more frequently now and is not hesitant to do so. They are coming on leaps and bounds.’’ People told us staff supported them to leave the service and pursue their interests. One person said, ‘‘We do a lot here. We are always out and about doing [activities and past times]. There is always something going on.’’ Another person said, ‘‘[Staff] are always on hand to take us out and about if we want to go anywhere.’’ Staff told us they had enough time to support people out of their homes whenever they requested to do this.

It was not always clear how people were supported to have their desired experiences and outcomes. People had some goals and ambitions recorded in their care plans. However, staff were not always recording how they were supporting people in line with these in daily care records. People’s goals were not being reviewed regularly to see if people still wanted to achieve these goals or how staff were progressing with supporting them with these. It was unclear from people’s records and care plans what outcomes they had achieved since they started living at the service. This made it more difficult to see if people were being supported to have good experiences or achieve their desired outcomes. The provider and registered manager told us they did not always monitor this as they collected feedback on how things were going from people on an almost daily basis and people were happy with the service. However, they said they would review how people’s outcomes were being monitored and improved.

The staff team understood the importance of supporting people to have good experiences and told us they always made sure they did this. One person said, ‘‘We always get supported with what we want to do even if we have to wait a little while for the staff to be organised to take us.’’ One of the key things that people had been supported to achieve was to not need support from intensive support services when they felt upset or anxious anymore. This had a very positive impact on their wellbeing. One person said, ‘‘I honestly never thought living in a place like this would be possible for me. The way staff support me is amazing and I have never felt better.’’

People had been supported to discuss their plans for the future and record these in their care plans. No one using the service needed support in relation to the end of their life however the staff and management team knew where to go for support when this did happen. One person said, ‘‘I can see myself living here for the rest of my life. It is the first time I have had somewhere I could truly call a home.’’