Hopscotch Women’s Centre

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. At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to 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.

The provider actively engaged with partners to improve safety. They were participants in the local authority ‘test and learn’ project, meeting regularly with other local services to discuss and share learning from any safety events or other things that had not gone as expected. This included celebrating success to learn from others’ practice.

Clear recording of incidents showed prompt investigations, clear outcomes and any resulting learning. Findings were shared with staff to help improve practice. A member of staff told us, “We have meetings when something goes wrong and we learn from it”.

The provider 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.

Some people and staff told us that improvements could be made to ensure the same care staff provided care and support to the same people where possible. At the time of our assessment, the office was aware that improvements were needed to the staff rota and were working to address this issue.

Thorough assessments took place prior to people receiving care. This included home visits and liaising with other professionals involved in people’s care. Care plans were created and available to staff prior to care commencing with sufficient detail to deliver safe care.

The service communicated with other healthcare professionals to ensure care was delivered appropriately and any developing needs were escalated as needed.

Partners told us, “Hopscotch email if a patient needs medical advice/GP review/district nurses’ input/podiatry input in a timely manner.”

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.

Safeguarding concerns were shared with all relevant agencies promptly. Partner agencies told us that safeguarding concerns were raised in a timely manner through appropriate methods dependent on severity, which was well judged by the service.

Staff were able to show they understood safeguarding responsibilities and knew how to act if they were worried about possible issues. Recording and learning from safeguarding events was clear and detailed.

Regular safeguarding training was provided and recorded to ensure staff understanding was kept up to date.

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.

We saw evidence of risk assessments in people’s care plans. This included supporting people who had capacity to take risks that may be deemed unwise as safely as possible. Staff did this by reiterating risks and revisiting the issues periodically. Staff ensured all such actions were recorded and any referrals to other agencies such as fire safety or occupational health were made with consent and to help keep people safe.

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

Prior to providing care, the service visited people’s homes to ensure they were safe for both the person living there and any visiting staff. Once a care package had commenced staff continued to assess the safety of a person’s home environment. Relevant referrals were made to other agencies when needed. For example, a fire risk was supported by a risk assessment from the fire service. If equipment was needed to support with care, occupational health was contacted. Appropriate training was undertaken to help ensure staff knew how to use any equipment safely as well as to identify any defects if they occurred

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.

Most people we spoke with told us they felt safe with staff, though some who don’t have the consistency of the same carers, felt this could be improved if they had staff who knew them better.

Staff were well supported through induction, training and ongoing supervision. Supervision included both 1:1 sessions and group meetings with other staff members. Staff were supervised during home visits so practical work was adequately overseen by care coordinators.

There were effective means of staff communication via a group platform which was well engaged with by staff, who told us this was an effective way of communicating in real time and ensured all staff members were kept up to date.

There was access to a staff area at the office where staff could talk to office colleagues and other care staff for support and to raise any concerns promptly.

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.

The service had good communications with relevant healthcare colleagues and were able to raise any concerns around infection promptly.

Staff had access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which was stored in and collected from the office. Staff told us there were always plenty available so that they could have enough to allow for changes between tasks as well as some spare. People we spoke with confirmed staff wore appropriate items when providing care.

There was a clear infection prevention and control policy, which all staff reviewed regularly and had access to. Staff were encouraged to take up seasonal vaccines.

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.

Staff were trained to support people with their medicines where required and this was regularly reviewed and overseen by someone suitably trained to do so. Staff were able to describe how medicine delivery was done safely.

Care plans detailed where medicines were stored and care staff followed this, for example if medicines were stored in a locked cupboard. This was recorded in care notes along with details of doses administered. If someone did not want to take their medicines at any time this was clearly recorded so other carers, family members and healthcare professionals were aware.

Patches and creams were recorded using a body map to show where they had to be applied. This was recorded electronically so that it was up to date.