Home Instead North Norfolk

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 outstanding. This meant people were truly respected and valued as individuals; and empowered as partners in their care in an exceptional service.

This service scored 100 (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 was exceptional at treating people with kindness, empathy, and compassion and in how they respected people’s privacy and dignity. Staff always treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. People’s feedback was distinctly and overwhelmingly positive in relation to staff’s ability to provide exceptionally compassionate, kind, and respectful care and support. They told us every staff member demonstrated these caring characteristics that made people feel respected and accepted. One person who used the service said, “Staff are patient and let me do what I can and allow me to keep doing it for as long as possible.” Another person told us how important it was to them to have staff they could trust, rely upon, and a service they could contact if they needed to. They said, “It’s very important to me that I can talk to them whenever I need.” This person told us they considered the staff that supported them as friends and that they were ‘very pleased’ with the care and support they received. Relatives appreciated how kind staff were and told us they felt reassured by this. They gave us examples of where staff had nurtured trusting, meaningful relationships with their family members. One relative said, “Several staff have provided particularly outstanding support and have made a real effort to build a relationship with [family member]. Some of them have gone out of their way to help. They are respectful and mindful of [family member’s] dignity, ensuring consent is obtained before carrying out tasks and encouraging them to remain as independent as possible.”

Staff spoke with us about the people they supported with affection, professionalism, and warmth. They demonstrated they had built positive relationships with people and were able to demonstrate their care, compassion and respect for people’s values and lifestyles. They understood the need for people to remain in control and feel empowered by the care they received, and their role in supporting that. One staff member said, “Whenever I enter a client’s home, I treat them as I would expect any member of my family to be treated. I remind myself constantly that the home I am in is that of the client. I listen but I also hear what they say, giving them time to explain. Independence and dignity are achieved by gaining consent to do the tasks set out in the care plan, providing person-centred care and allowing the client to do what they can independently or with a small amount of assistance, giving them time to achieve their goals. I work at building positive and honest relationships with my clients and their families and try to follow the aims and objectives [of the provider] while promoting and respecting confidentiality and autonomy.”

The provider treated people as individuals and was exceptional in how they made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. The provider took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. Evidence showed people received exceptional care and support that valued and respected them as individuals. People, and their relatives, told us this and records confirmed that. The provider, staff, and people proudly shared many examples of how protected characteristics such as age, disability, and religion had been identified, care planned for, met, and embraced. The provider had taken time to understand what was important to people, what they wanted to achieve from receiving care, and their goals and aspirations. From this, exceptionally detailed care plans were formed that took account of people’s life histories, values, and wishes. These were written in an extremely respectful and sensitive way that gave staff the information they needed to help forge meaningful relationships with people. This helped to quickly form trusting partnerships where people could embrace who they were and wanted to be without judgement. For one person who lived with dementia, which sometimes caused distressed behaviour, their relative told us how kind and unjudgmental staff remained. They said, “We appreciate the kindness and commitment shown by the carers and the effort they make to build positive relationships with the people they support.” Another relative told us how staff had skilfully adapted the care they provider as their family member’s health declined. They said, “Unfortunately, [family member’s] independence has changed recently due to illness, and they now totally rely on their carers. The carers have dealt with this in a positive, respectful manner.” This respectful, individualised, and flexible approach gave people confidence that staff really understood them and their needs which made a positive impact on their wellbeing.

Through feedback, staff demonstrated they knew people exceptionally well, what was important to them, and what they wanted to achieve. Staff spoke about people with respect, admiration, and warmth and it was clear they understood, and respected, the people they supported as individuals. One staff member told us about the positive impact the service had on a person they supported. They told us how much the person’s health and wellbeing had improved which had impacted on their quality of life and that of their families as well as their confidence as an individual. The staff member told us how the person had received most care in bed when the service started but was now mostly independent. The staff member said, “I’m helping [the person] to help themselves and, at the end of the day, we’re friends. I have to give credit to [person], I just gave them the confidence though building trust. [Person] had tried other agencies, but they were never happy with them as they didn’t respect their home or the small things. That makes such a big difference.”

The provider was exceptional at promoting people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment, and wellbeing.

The provider placed a strong emphasis on working with people to not only enable but increase independence to make them feel valued, confident, and provide them with choice. They understood that enhancing people’s independence was the catalyst for emotional and physical health and wellbeing. People told us the service was adept at this. One person who used the service said of the care they received, “It gives me space to do things for myself on good days and gives me help if I’m not so good.” One relative explained the positive impact the service had on their family member by allowing them the independence to remain living in their own home. They told us their family member now enjoyed spending time in their garden feeding the birds and local visits out to enjoy nature, something they used to enjoy. The relative also told us how their family member had once again found pleasure in food because of the support they received from the service. The relative told us of the positive emotional impact this had had on them also saying, “It’s taken a huge burden off my shoulders.” They went on to say, “I’ve got every confidence staff are not only competent but focused on doing the very best they can [for family member].”

Through feedback and discussion, staff demonstrated they understood the importance of supporting people’s independence and the powerful impact this had. One staff member said, “Home Instead North Norfolk aims and values are to enhance people’s lives in a person-centred way to live safely, promoting independence living in their own homes. I feel we deliver this to a high standard.” The staff member went on to explain the impact the service had had on one person who used the service. They said, “They are now completing activities again they used to do but didn’t have the confidence to complete on their own. The client now goes out on a daily basis and joins in with coffee mornings, church events, and visiting friends in their community. The client has now built on their confidence and although living with a cognitive impairment, the staff are promoting independence in making choices of daily activities, going out for meals, and generally how the day is spent.”

Care plans carefully considered people’s independence, choice, and control and we saw exceptional examples of how the provider planned for this in collaboration with people considering their values, wishes, and aspirations. They took time in discussing with people what they wanted to achieve from receiving the service, which was often to have the independence to remain living in their own homes, and this formed the heart of the care people received. By delivering extremely creative, person-centred, and distinctive care and support, the service was meeting, and often exceeding, people’s wishes, aims, and outcomes.

The provider was exceptional in how they 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.

Evidence demonstrated the provider was extremely proactive in seeking ways to prevent people becoming distressed, upset, or experience discomfort. Due to the provider’s highly proactive and responsive culture, the use of artificial intelligence (a branch of computer science that develops systems capable of performing tasks requiring human-like intelligence) to quickly identify concerns and knowing the needs of the people who used the service exceptionally well, it meant people’s changing needs were recognised early and addressed promptly to ensure people remained content and well. For example, for one person who experienced recurrent infections, the service identified that pain the person was experiencing was a potentially early symptom of an infection. This meant they could seek treatment for the person before the infection escalated and caused them discomfort. We saw multiple other examples of how the service quickly identified people’s changing needs and how they adapted the care and support they provided to meet those. We saw a service that worked exceedingly flexibly to ensure people did not experience unnecessary upset or distress. The people who provided us with feedback, and their relatives, agreed. One relative said, “We do rely on them if anything unforeseen happens – like a carer is unwell or there is a crisis. They have never let us down.”

The strong enabling ethos of the staff and management team meant there were always staff available to immediately respond to people’s changing needs or in the event on an emergency. We saw this from the records we viewed and the feedback we received confirmed that. For example, one staff member said, “The team responds to people’s changing needs as soon as they are made aware and will go out to clients to assess and review to ensure they have the right support, liaising with community teams to get relevant support and assessments in place and will liaise with clients and families to update them on progress. [Registered manager] is incredibly responsive and supports not only their team to deliver outstanding care but support their clients, regularly going out to support and review clients with the team and has done so at weekends and in the evenings to support clients at a time of need.” The records we viewed, and the systems in place to manage accidents and incidents, confirmed this.

People told us the service was highly effective at always communicating and liaising with them not only when incidents occurred. One person who used the service said, “They can be relied upon to sort things out” whilst a relative said, “They always ring me and tell me if there’s anything going on… If I ring them, I get positive and swift responses. They seem dedicated and focused on doing the best for [family member].”

The provider always cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and was exceptional at supporting and enabling staff to always deliver person-centred care.

The provider showed exceptional awareness of the direct impact of staff health, wellbeing, and happiness on the quality of the care delivered. The nominated individual for the service told us staff wellbeing was, “A priority for the organisation” and that, “Staff wellbeing is fundamental to delivering high quality care.” The provider had multiple processes in place to ensure staff felt valued, cared for, supported, and appreciated which supported the delivery of high quality and person-centred care. This included an employee assist programme, access to an app that supported good mental health, regular and varied award schemes, a wellbeing champion, and a wellbeing group. The wellbeing group was made up of staff, and its aim was to promote and create wellbeing initiatives and opportunities, raise awareness of health and wellbeing, and signpost to appropriate services. Staff consistently told us they felt valued, cared for, listened to, and respected. They told us the provider showed genuine care in their health and wellbeing and gave us examples of where they had been supported with both professional, and personal, challenges. One staff member said, “I feel valued by Home Instead North Norfolk and feel they value my input and comments and implement suggestions where appropriate. In the past they have supported me through bad times with dignity and respect and supported me in work with care and consideration.” The provider consistently demonstrated a commitment to staff wellbeing to enable staff to remain driven and passionate in delivering person-centred care.

The provider had a clear and consistent ethos in treating staff with dignity and respect, valuing them as individuals, and identifying and working to their skills and abilities as well as supporting them to develop these. Staff told us they were always made to feel welcome by the management team and their colleagues and that the culture was very much values led where all staff demonstrated warmth, thoughtfulness, and kindness. One staff member said, “I feel supported inside and outside of work with check ins when they know something is bothering me and praising when something is going well, I could tell them anything and never be judged.” Another staff member told us, “The team have helped me grow into my position by carefully matching [the people who use the service] with my capabilities and personality advising on relevant courses to help me serve the people I support better, given me the opportunity to have non-rushed appraisals which are relevant to my role and have helped me gain more confidence.”