Ethica Care Hemel Hempstead & St Albans

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 60 (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 treat people with kindness, empathy and compassion, or respect their privacy and dignity.

People’s feedback was positive about how staff cared for them and protected their dignity. People and relatives said staff were attentive and kind in their approach, sensitive and showed warmth and compassion when assisting them. One person said, “They close the bathroom door, and if I ask them for help, they will come. They give me confidence.” One relative said, “That [Person] is treated with dignity has always been the case. They were apprehensive about having the carers. One of the carers has been with the company for a while and has known [Person] for some months. They were the person I requested to be assigned to them go about their job in a very caring way.”

We saw from peoples records however that daily notes from staff recording the care provided did not always support people’s dignity. For example, when documenting continence care that had been provided, staff noted, “Pad change – nappy.” We saw other examples that did not support people’s dignity, which the new manager would review when people’s care records were reviewed after this inspection.

The provider did not always treat people as individuals or make sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They did not always take account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Care plans were not robustly completed to ensure about people’s personal, cultural, social or religious needs were incorporated. Where care plans did include people’s preferences such as around the gender of staff they received or the times of their calls, these were not always followed. One person told us they had raised on several occasions with the provider the need to send only male staff to provide care. They said after raising this with the provider they continued to have a choice or carer they did not agree to.

Daily records were mostly task focused and didn’t always evidence staff respected people’s choices and preferences.

People and relatives said they generally had positive relationships with staff. Although some people were frustrated at not having a consistent care team, their feedback about the staff demonstrated they felt they were treated as individuals. One relative commented, “They are just lovely. Some are so caring, almost as if they are family. They say to [Person] that they love them. It gives me reassurance. “

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

People gave us examples of where staff when providing personal care listened to their views and encouraged people to remain independent. One example of many was when a person said how when staff arrived, they asked for some time alone to manage their personal care. They were left alone to and when ready for support asked staff to then assist with the care, they were unable to complete. This person said they were appreciative of the approach of the carers and that they would encourage them to be as independent as they could. One relative told us how staff had worked with a health professional to support them to regain their mobility and independence through support with physio exercises. They were very grateful for the additional support and said, “[Person] could not be independent. They do physio with them because [Person] wanted to get out of bed. The physiotherapist did a plan and sent it to Ethica Care through the district nurses.”

Staff explained the importance of respecting people’s choices and enabling people to remain independent. Staff gave several examples of how they supported people’s independence from simple tasks such as people brushing their hair through to more involved support with mobility or washing and dressing.

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 and relatives told us that their care staff were responsive to their immediate needs. They gave examples where care staff had been providing more support if they were struggling were supported to see a GP. Another person told us staff helped them to speak with a pharmacy and collected their medicines for them when they ran out of supply.

Staff had a good knowledge around people’s needs and were able to give examples where they had acted responsively to help keep people safe or support their wellbeing.

The provider did not always care about and promote the wellbeing of their staff. They did not always support or enable staff to deliver person-centred care.

The systems and approach of the provider, did not enable all staff the ability to consistently deliver person centred care. Systems and processes around staffing, care reviews and assessments lacking completion, improvements to training and oversight did not support this person-centred approach.

Staff gave varying feedback with some staff feeling valued and enabled to perform within their role. One staff member commented that, “We have an open-door policy, anything we wish to discuss we always get support. We are not afraid to speak up; we have a manager who listens.” However, other staff did not feel the provider promoted a sense of wellbeing and support towards them. We also received feedback from staff whose comments included, “At times it can be stressful working for Ethica Care as we are mostly phoning up, reporting a concern or an issue for a client. I feel I’m chasing them all the time.”

The Provider offered all staff access to support via an external service that provides advice, and counselling for staff members.