Short Term Assessment & Reablement Team (START - London Borough of Sutton)

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.

At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has remained good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

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 always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity.

People were treated well by staff. One person told us, “The carers are very kind and nice to both of us, and they have a chat to us, especially in the evenings.” A relative said, “They treat [family member] with care and consideration. They talk to her a lot and that keeps her active mentally. They inspire conversation about family and lots of other things.”

Staff understood people’s right to privacy and treated people with dignity and respect. A staff member told us, “People can get embarrassed and so you make sure when you are doing personal care, they are dignified.” Another staff member said, “We make sure in microenvironments, we ask others to leave when we want to provide care.” (Microenvironments are areas set up in people’s homes, usually in one room, to provide them with the care and support they need.)

Managers gathered feedback from people to seek assurances they were being treated well by staff. The registered manager told us, “We have our surveys, and we ask people these questions so we can check how people are being treated by staff.”

We did not look at Treating people as individuals during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

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

Staff provided people with care and support which was focused on helping them to regain confidence and independence with the activities of daily living. One person told us, “They do encourage me. Yesterday, they encouraged me to do a few steps with the frame. I’d like to do more steps with support.” Another person said, “[Staff member] came out and brought me a toilet frame, a washing chair and a shower chair and talked to me and told me that the idea was to help me to do things, not just to do things for me.” A relative told us, “They encourage [family member] all the time to do as much as she can and she is now back to being mobile and we have moved from 4 times a day (care calls) to 3 times a day.”

People had choice and control over how their care and support was provided. One person told us, “The carers always ask me what I want to do or if I want to do it, like a wash, ‘yes or no’, or get dressed ‘yes or no’. It’s my choice.” A relative said, “[Family member] definitely has control over her care. If that wasn’t an option, she would not cooperate with them at all.”

We did not look at Responding to people’s immediate needs during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Workforce wellbeing and enablement during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.