Focus Care Link Ltd - Waltham Forest Branch

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – this means we looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture. At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has remained requires improvement. This meant the service management and leadership was inconsistent. Leaders and the culture they created did not always support the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care. The provider was in breach of legal regulation in relation to good governance at the service.
 

This service scored 62 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. They listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. Safety incidents were appropriately investigated and reported. Staff told us they understood how to record incidents or accidents, and how to report safety concerns. A staff member commented, '‘They reviewed accidents and incidents to understand what went wrong and to prevent it from happening again. They shared the lessons learned with the team to help improve safety.’’ Safety events and actions taken were discussed at the staff meeting to aid learning. Lesson learnt reports included recommended actions to prevent re-occurrence and keep people safe.

Leaders had the skills, knowledge, experience and credibility to lead effectively. Staff reported they had felt supported by leaders, who had maintained a visible presence within the service.

The service fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard. Staff told us they had felt supported and encouraged to speak up. They were able to raise concerns with the manager or, where appropriate, with other relevant external agencies. Staff had access to the necessary policies to support them in doing so.

The service valued diversity in their workforce. The registered manager told us they worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who worked for them.

The service did not have clear responsibilities, roles, systems of accountability and good governance. They did not act on the best information about risk. The provider’s governance systems for auditing the service were not effective in identifying or addressing areas for improvement to ensure that people were not placed at risk of receiving unsafe and inappropriate care. For example, the service did not make sure that medicines and treatments were safe and met people’s needs, which placed people at risk of unsafe care.

The provider’s systems to identify and manage risks were also not effective, as they had not always identified all the risks people faced while receiving care and they had not always put effective risk management plans in place to address identified risks.

There was no effective system of record keeping in place. Care plans and MAR charts were not consistently updated to reflect changes in people’s health and medicine needs, which may impact the quality and continuity of care.

There was no effective system in place to ensure staff employed under the Skilled Worker visa route were working their contracted hours. We found that some staff had worked significantly fewer hours than those stated in their contracts. We spoke with the registered manager and shared the information with the appropriate agencies.

The provider had a business continuity plan in place to help ensure the service could continue running during and after any significant disruptions.
 

The service had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. They listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. Safety incidents were appropriately investigated and reported. Staff told us they understood how to record incidents or accidents, and how to report safety concerns. A staff member commented, '‘They reviewed accidents and incidents to understand what went wrong and to prevent it from happening again. They shared the lessons learned with the team to help improve safety.’’ Safety events and actions taken were discussed at the staff meeting to aid learning. Lesson learnt reports included recommended actions to prevent re-occurrence and keep people safe.

The service focused on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation and local system. The service actively sought the views of staff, people using the service, their families and carers in developing and evaluating improvement and innovation initiatives.