Routes Healthcare Tameside

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. At our last assessment we rated this key question outstanding. At this assessment the rating has changed to requires improvement. This meant people did not always feel well-supported, cared for or treated with dignity and respect.

This service scored 60 (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 did not always treat people with kindness, empathy and compassion, or respect their privacy and dignity. Staff did not always treat colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Staff were well-intentioned towards people. Most people told us staff treated them with dignity and kindness, but some people expressed concerns. One person told us, “The carers are all friendly and they do a good a job.” One relative told us, “I have got to know one of the carers a bit, some are friendly, others just come in, do their jobs and leave.” Some people also expressed concerns staff did not have enough time to spend with people and there were numerous changes within the rota impacting the care people were receiving. One person told us, “We get a rota every week, which then changes and carers are getting reassigned. My family are now picking up shifts. The carers who come do a lot of short calling to cram in all the calls they need to make.” Staff we spoke to felt strongly about ensuring people received kind and compassionate support and their dignity was protected. One staff member told us, “Even if the client can’t communicate or respond you still talk to them, make them at ease and provide reassurance. I try to be as compassionate as I can, and I treat my clients the way I wanted to be treated.” Another staff member told us, “We are doing things for my client in a way it doesn’t embarrass them. When we are supporting them to go to the toilet, we would cover them with the towel to be mindful and to give them as much privacy as possible.”

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

People’s individual needs were identified, and overall care plans contained good level of information regarding people’s individual needs and preferences. There was mixed feedback about the abilities of the staff. One person told us, “My loved one has Dementia and the new carers coming in have absolutely no dementia awareness training, and don’t know how to help them.” However, another person told us, “They[carers] come in 4 times a day. They help me with my wash, change my bed and help me with my tea. They do everything I ask them to do.” Staff we spoke with had a good understanding of the people they were supporting and meeting their individual needs. One staff member told us, “Sometimes someone needs a lot more than other people who may just need you to sit there and have a chat. Every client is different.” Another staff member commented, “You Walk into somebody’s home and it is about that person not you. It is their home. Recognizing the needs of that individual and meeting that need in the time you are there. It’s about the person’s needs.”

The provider prompted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and well-being.

Staff we spoke to had a good understating of how to promote people’s independence and support them with their choice and control over their care. One staff member told us, “I always encourage my clients to do things by themselves. One person loves to wash themselves and make her own breakfast and if I try to help them, they get upset. I always appreciate and encourage them to do things for themselves.” Another staff member told us, “I supported a person who lost their loved one and they got depressed. They wouldn’t do anything for themselves. Now they are eating, walking and using the bathroom on their own but when I met them, they were bed bound.”

The provider did not always listen to and understand people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff did not always respond to people’s needs in the moment or act to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

People told us their views and wishes were not always listened to by the provider. Most people we spoke with told us about poor communication with the provider and the leadership team. We received mixed feedback from people regarding concerns they had raised being followed up. One person told us, “No we are not happy with the communication. They promise us this and that but then do nothing.” Another relative told us, “There have been so many management and staff changes- nobody is taking responsibility. It is beyond a mess. Recently the out of hours phone was not answered as somebody at the agency turned it off as nobody was on call, it did not divert so we had no support at all.” Another relative told us, “We communicate with the provider by e-mail or phone. We have no complaints and issues are being dealt with.”

Staff we spoke with had understating of how to meet people’s needs and were able to provide examples of actions they were taking to ensure people received the support they needed. One staff member told us, “I always encourage people to do what they can for themselves. If possible, I would ask my client to go to the kitchen sort their food out and try to engage them as much as possible. I always communicate with them, see what they need.”

The provider did not always care about and promote the wellbeing of their staff. They did not always support or enable staff to deliver person-centred care.

One staff member told us, “There are frequent changes here. We have gone through a lot of managers in the time I have been here. They all come and say they will put things right and then they realise they can’t or won’t and the next one comes along and says the same thing. If I wasn’t so invested in my clients, I wouldn’t be here. I would leave.” Some staff we spoke to told us they did not feel supported in their roles. One staff member told us, “I told the office about some staff doing an easy job and not helping. They said they will address it, but nothing gets done and people don’t get spoken to. Staff expressed some concerns regarding how their rotas were being managed. One staff member told us, “I have never been off sick and I’m reliable. One day I could not work and gave the office notice, but they gave me a shift on that day.” Another staff member told us, “If I’m allocated to spend 30 minutes with a client this includes my travelling time, and it can be difficult especially due to traffic.”

There was a number of well-being initiatives available to staff to support their well-being, for example flexible working policy and access to designated helplines. Staff were provided with some opportunities to provide feedback and raise concerns.