Crystal Caring

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence. At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the key question has remained the same. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 71 (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 made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them. The manager told us, “We discuss [people’s] expectations, outcomes for support they want to achieve. Some people only want support for a short period of time. This happens quite frequently. We speak with people and have an initial phone-call and ask if they would like anyone else would like to attend. We discuss needs, preferences, anything they would like. As it is care in people’s own homes, we try to make it as person-centred to them as possible. Some people are very detailed, about how they like their routines.” Care plans reviewed as part of this assessment contained information about people’s preferences and things that mattered to them, including information about their life history.

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards. People were involved in their care planning and reviews of their care, which meant people’s care plans were a true reflection of their needs. Evidence-based tools were used within care planning, to support with assessing risks.

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. Staff told us they worked well with each other and other services. The manager told us about how they had built relationships with other care providers and external professionals to share learning and continually improve the service. We received positive feedback from healthcare partners to support this. For example, one partner told us, “I had no concerns and felt they are a reliable, good, professional care agency who care about their clients”. Another partner told us, “All interactions with the service have been positive”. People and their relatives told us the provider had supported them to access external services.

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support. The manager told us about a person being supported by staff to go out on regular walks to help maintain their mobility and access the community. People had information recorded within their care plans to guide staff to encourage a healthy lifestyle, for example encouraging a person to follow an exercise plan which had been provided for them by an external professional. The manager told us, “We also support some individuals to write weekly shopping lists and help individuals to make healthier choices”.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves. Staff told us systems and processes supported the monitoring of people’s outcomes. The manager told us, “These take place during our care reviews. Where we gather information such as feedback, compliments or complaints and the general impact that the service has on the individual. We also monitor these within our monthly care note audits as improvements may have been made within a certain period of time and this may mean this induvial can then go back to living independently without needed care because they have been able to reach their usual baseline where they can manage."

The provider did not always tell people about their rights around consent and did not always respect their rights when delivering care and treatment. We found the provider did not always involve people in decisions about their care and treatment. For example, one person who was able to make their own decisions, had not been involved in decisions relating to accessing medical services following an injury. The manager told us, despite the person having no evidence of lacking capacity, they had instead contacted the person’s family member due to them having Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) for Health and Welfare for next steps. This meant the provider had acted without the person’s consent. However, there was evidence people had consented to their care plans. Staff had received training in the MCA and told us they asked for people’s consent before offering support.