Wildflower Home Care Ltd

On this page

• Overview
• Learning culture
• Safe systems, pathways and transitions
• Safeguarding
• Involving people to manage risks
• Safe environments
• Safe and effective staffing
• Infection prevention and control
• Medicines optimisation

Safe – this means we looked for evidence that people were protected from abuse and avoidable harm.

This is the first assessment for this newly registered service. This key question has been rated Good.

This meant people were safe and protected from avoidable harm.

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 had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. Staff listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. Lessons were learnt to continually identify and embed good practice.

Accidents and incidents were recorded and reviewed for learning. The registered manager said, “Once a month we do a matrix review. That’s where the analysis comes into place. We have conversations about this and make changes due to certain patterns. We share learning with the team via email and phone.”

The provider always worked with people and healthcare partners to establish and maintain safe systems of care, in which safety was managed or monitored. They made sure there was continuity of care, including when people moved between different services.

Assessments were carried out with people face to face whether this was in the person’s home or another setting, such as hospital. The registered manager also told us, “I’ve spoken with care staff in a care home before on the way out, to find out more about a person.”

This helped ensure that the service obtained as much relevant information as possible prior to the person starting to receive a care package, so the transition into having someone in their home was smooth.

One person had left a review about Wildflower Home Care to say, ‘When I was told I needed carers I found it quite daunting, I mean nobody likes strangers coming into their home. But I can honestly say they made me feel so comfortable that I felt at ease right from the beginning’. A relative told us, “I was involved and [family member’s name] transition to receiving care was great.”

The provider worked with people and healthcare partners to understand what being safe meant to them and the best way to achieve that. Staff concentrated on improving people’s lives while protecting their right to live in safety, free from bullying, harassment, abuse, discrimination, avoidable harm and neglect. The provider shared concerns quickly and appropriately.

All staff undertook safeguarding training. This was completed prior to staff working alone with people. The training was refreshed annually to help ensure staff remained knowledgeable in how to identify potential signs of abuse.

The registered manager told us, “We would send a referral to the MASH (multi-agency safeguarding hub) team if need be.” Staff said, “I would report anything to the line manager. I have no qualms about speaking out.”

The provider worked with people to understand and manage risks by thinking holistically. Staff provided care to meet people’s needs that was safe, supportive and enabled people to do the things that mattered to them.

People’s care plans detailed any medical or health conditions people may have that would require additional attention and focus from staff. This included where people had high blood pressure, which may increase their risk of falls, or they were living with dementia and may become confused when using the oven.

One person had a risk assessment detailing for them to use a wheelchair if they were mobilising for longer distances to help reduce the likelihood of them falling. Another was recorded as needing to avoid a certain food due to the medication they were on.In order to help ensure a person’s safety, a staff member carried out a clean of their pathway to remove the moss and as such reduced the risk of the person slipping and falling. A relative told us, “There really hasn’t been any issues (with safety) and the odd thing is immediately sorted by [registered manager].” A staff member said, “I keep an eye on her. I give her places to hold on to when she is moving on her own, but I am also just a few steps away.”

Professionals felt people were safe being looked after by the service. A professional told us, “Ultimately, we always know our clients are in safe hands when they are being cared for by the Wildflower team.”

The provider detected and controlled potential risks in the care environment. They made sure equipment, facilities and technology supported the delivery of safe care.

Each person had an environmental risk assessment recorded in their care plan. This highlighted any areas which staff needed to be aware of such as where rubbish was stored, whether a person had a key safe, or if there were smoke alarms. Each person also had a fire safety evacuation plan which would assist staff in ensuring people were safely evacuated from their home in the event of an emergency.

The provider made sure there were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff, who received effective support, supervision and development. They worked together well to provide safe care that met people’s individual needs.

The service used an electronic care planning system which also enabled the registered manager and senior staff to monitor staff whereabouts.This helped to ensure that everyone received their care visit when they were expecting it. The registered manager told us, “I monitor where staff are because I am not on a regular schedule. We have had no missed calls.”

People and family members told us staff arrived on time and stayed the full time expected. One relative said, “They arrive and stay the full time.”

Staff also felt they had sufficient time on care visits. Staff told us, “We have a nice amount of time at calls. We are able to do everything”, “Personally I have enough time with people and enough (travel) time in between” and “We are given really good gaps between visits, and the clients really like that they see the same staff.”

Staff underwent a robust induction and training programme prior to commencing work for the service. This included in-house training over a 2-day period and completing the Care Certificate (a set of foundational standards for health and social care workers in the UK) online. New staff then shadowed more experienced staff to help ensure they were competent in the role. A staff member said, “We have a lot of good training and also supplementary training when needed.”

Staff were employed through a rigorous recruitment process. This included providing evidence of their performance in their previous role, a full employment history and their fitness for the job. Each new staff member underwent a Disclosure and Barring Services check (DBS) to help ensure they were suitable to work in this type of service.

The provider assessed and managed the risk of infection. They detected and controlled the risk of it spreading and shared concerns with appropriate agencies promptly.

Staff followed good infection control practices. The registered manager told us, “There is PPE (personal protective equipment) in people’s homes, and we also deliver it to staff. We carry out risk assessments specific to clients to help decide what PPE is required. But each staff member has access to gloves, aprons, shoe covers, masks, etc.”

Staff told us they had access to PPE. One said, “I carry PPE with me, and some people have it on site.” A second fed back, “We always have enough boxes of gloves to hand out when needed and we make sure each client who needs personal care has boxes of gloves in their house. We hand out masks as required.”

The provider made sure that medicines and treatments were safe and met people’s needs, capacities and preferences. Staff involved people in planning, including when changes happened.

People received the medicines they were prescribed as well as any topical creams (medicines in cream format). We reviewed the medicine administration records for some people and found no gaps which indicated staff were providing the medicines as needed. Where people required topical creams clear instructions of where to apply these were included in people’s care plans. A relative told us, “They (staff) fill out the charts.”

Only medicines trained staff administered medicines or applied topical creams. This helped ensure that people received their medicines by someone competent. A staff member told us, “I dispense medicines. I had initial training and then refresher training.” A second said, “I am personally very confident (in medicine practices) and we have recently had updated training.”