Austin Place

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 rating has remained as Good.

This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

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 made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

People’s needs were assessed prior to commencing with a care package. This helped ensure that the service could meet the person’s needs and also have staff availability. One person told us, “We thrashed out my needs between us.” Another said, “[Registered manager] did an assessment.”

The registered manager told us, “A person’s care plan is usually completed within 48 hours depending on the person’s needs. We adjust the care plan once we’ve completed the first call as we have a better idea at that stage what exactly needs to be done.”

People were always introduced to staff prior to a care call taking place. This helped ensure that people were familiar with who was going to be carrying out their care.

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.

The service used nationally recognised assessments when planning people’s care. This included a falls risk assessment and the Braden scale which is used to predict a person’s risk of developing pressure ulcers. These assessments were reviewed regularly to help ensure they remained an accurate reflection of the person and their current situation.

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services.

The registered manager and staff worked with people’s GPs and other health care professionals where needed. This included liaising with the hospital if necessary and for 1 person, discussing their needs with the hospital rehabilitation team.

The service had a small team of staff who liaised with each other regularly. This included the completion of a daily handover, so staff were always up to date with people’s needs or changes. The handover ensured staff knew when people had cancelled their calls, had experienced accidents or incidents or required health care professional input.

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 service worked with people and their families to support their health and wellbeing. This included liaising with family members on a person’s discharge from hospital to check if any of their care needs had changed, amending or stopping medicines at the GP instructions and discussing the outcome of hospital or health appointments to ensure the care package remained appropriate.

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 supported people in ways that improved their outcomes. This included helping to reduce 1 person’s episodes of urinary tract infections (through encouragement of good personal care), and providing sensitive, compassionate support to another person following a recent bereavement, ensuring they continued to eat well and care for themselves.

The provider told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.
Everyone receiving a care package from the service had mental capacity and could make their own decisions. However, the service required them to sign a ‘consent to care’ form prior to commencing the care.
Staff received training in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and understood the need to ensure they sought people’s consent prior to providing care. A staff member told us, “We have the e-learning, and this is refreshed yearly. When we assess the capability of a client, we can tell if they do or don’t have capacity. Sometimes capacity can be affected temporarily due to an illness so we would need to assess capacity again when a person is feeling better.”