Right at Home Colchester and District

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 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.

Care workers confirmed that clear and comprehensive assessments were undertaken to identify people’s care and support needs. This was also echoed by people and their relatives. People and their relatives were involved in to assessment to ensure it reflected what they wanted to achieve from the service.

One relative told us, “A very comprehensive care plan was done with me [relative] and the manager, every detail of her care was discussed and recorded for the carers to follow on a daily basis. Everything that she needs doing is in this plan.”

Another relative told us “My [relative’s] care plan is very detailed and if a carer didn’t know [relative] very well they would be able to do what [relative] needs well”.

All the information gathered during the assessment process was clearly detailed in people’s care records to ensure this information was captured and made available to those involved in people’s care. We saw evidence this was reviewed and the service have systems and processes in place to ensure that these reviews take place regularly.

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’s care and support plans included reference to best practice guidance and staff received regular training to ensure their knowledge and skill stayed up to date.

We saw evidence there was a joined-up approach between the service and involved health staff such as GPs and community-basedprofessionals. This ensured support was provided in a collaborative way, which focused on what was important to the person.The service had introduced‘GPConnect’whichallows authorised health and social care workers in a variety of care settings to access their patients' GP records, with the persons consent.The registered manager told us “GP Connectallows us to seemedication, see anything a GP can see with personsconsent,any visits, any referrals, any reactions.Onlytheofficecan see itso carers cannot see but anyappropriate informationwill be passed down. It has streamlined information handover which in turn gives peopleananswer to their queries or worries about their health.”

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 staff team worked together in a collaborative way. The service completed a comprehensive initial assessment with people to understand their wishes, needs and desired outcomes. This was shared with staff in a clear and transparent way, so staff knew how best to support people. Staff we spoke with expressed they felt they worked well as a team and had a shared dedication for caring for people who use the service. Staff understood the process of working with other services and could demonstrate examples of this.

Staff told us the on-call system was always accessible, and they were confident that they would be able to reach a senior member of staff should they need to.

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.

People were supported to live independently. People were actively consulted and involved on what was important to them and how they wanted to manage their health and wellbeing. Care plans focused on people’s strengths to ensure staff did not remove people’s independence and provided support in the areas where people required support. Staff were trained on how to prepare meals in a healthy way.

The service hosted a ‘love to move’ club where people who use the service can attend a movement programme to music. The service told us that the session has physical, emotional and cognitive benefits as well as being designed to move and have fun.

The provider routinelymonitoredpeople’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.

Care planswere regularly reviewed and kept up to date.

Leadersrang people on aregularbasis to undertake telephone call reviews. This gave people the opportunity to give feedback on what was working well and what needed improvement.The service also sentyearly feedback surveys to people and analyse the feedback to continuously improve the service. They add this to an action plan to work through and implementimprovements.

One person told us,“I have excellent communication with the office if I need it but quite honestly if everything isokI don’t need to speak withanyone."

The provider told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.

People consented to their care. People were asked to sign a consent form to consent to their care and they were consistently asked by staff to give verbal consent at the point of receiving care. People who were unable to consent had a Mental Capacity Assessment and Best Interests Decision in place, involving those people important to the person. Consent was not a static event, and staff understood the importance of continually seeking consent and keeping a record of this