GoodOaks Homecare - Horsham and Crawley

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 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 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. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. Staff were respectful and kind when supporting people, they gave examples of how they ensured people’s privacy and dignity whilst supporting them. This included making sure doors and curtains were closed during care delivery. A person said, “They do protect my dignity, they cover me (when providing personal care). They always tap on the door, I have a key safe, so they have to use the code, they open the door and put the key back again and always give a little tap and call out and say good morning.” Staff spoke about people with kindness and compassion. People told us they felt valued as staff knew and treated them well.

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. For example, a person enjoyed harvesting vegetables in their garden which staff supported them to do safely, sometimes in their own time. Other examples of people being treated as individuals included, staff signposting and arranging for a person to go to lunch club on a regular basis. A person told us, “The one that came in today, we have built a relationship, they know what I want and do what's needed. They know me quite well; we speak about all sorts. They are regular and we have become quite well acquainted.” People’s care records were very specific about people’s preferences; these included step by step instructions about how they liked to be supported with personal care, how they wished their medicines to be administered and how they liked their food prepared. Staff followed the care plans but told us they would be flexible if people expressed a different wish.

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. People had provided feedback to the management team which they had collated to share with staff. We reviewed the feedback, a comment included, ‘Nothing is too much trouble and [staff member] always has time for me. [Staff member] encourages me and inspired me not to give up, and has the most positive attitude, even when I can’t see it.’ Staff gave examples of how they promoted people’s independence to ensure they had control over their everyday lives.

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 were able to access the on-call system throughout the day and night, a person spoke of an accident they had and the responsiveness of the team who supported them outside of their scheduled visit. They told us staff immediately arrived at their home, provided support and contacted the ambulance service for them. They commented, “I was happy that they helped me so quickly, they are on the ball.” Reviews of people’s care were frequent and, in response to changing needs, we saw examples where care packages were increased upon people’s request.

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. The management team ensured staff morale remained high by sharing positive feedback about them and celebrating their successes. Award events were held where staff received gifts of appreciation. Staff spoke of the support they received, a staff member commented, “I feel extremely valued and we all work in a team very effectively, regularly they also check up on me to ensure my wellbeing is good.” A programme of supervisions and support visits were in place to ensure staff felt competent, were happy and able to complete their duties effectively. Staff received additional training in areas they were not confident in, and staff were supported to achieve qualifications relevant to their role.