Future Home Care Limited Nottinghamshire

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 good. At this assessment the rating has remained good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 85 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

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

Throughout the assessment we observed that people were treated with respect, kindness, patience and compassion. People were involved in discussions about their care, encouraged to be involved in conversation and activity, and called by their preferred name. People were free to have visitors when they wished, their autonomy and right to a personal life was supported, and staff also facilitated them visiting friends and family.

Staff conversations about people when speaking to colleagues was respectful and appropriate. Staff spoke warmly about people and valued their individual personality traits. One staff member said, “[Name] is very kind, caring and thoughtful.” People and relatives all confirmed they were treated with kindness and compassion. One relative said, “Absolutely [staff are kind and caring] I’ve never met any not, they all seem kind and courteous, and [relative] likes them, that’s the litmus test, if not [name] lets you know.” Another relative said, “[They are] very kind and caring I like the staff very much.”

Staff spoke positively about their managers and colleagues. One staff member described the team they worked with and said, “I have thought and always thought the women working here are hardworking inspirational people. [It’s a] very good team with really incredible people working here.”

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.

Staff listened to people and supported them using their preferred communication style. This enabled people to communicate their choices and preferences which were documented in people’s support plans and well known by staff.

People’s individual goals, aspirations and desires were understood. We met with one person who was being supported by staff using pictures and magazines to choose a holiday.

People’s background, life history, preferences and protected characteristics were respected which was sensitively documented in support plans to guide staff to provide them with the support they needed in the way the person wanted considering them as an individual and not just the support they required.

The provider consistently promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

The provider regularly sought feedback and engaged with relatives and other professionals to ensure people were empowered to have their say about things that were important to them. We saw people were listened too and then these points were acted on. People’s choices were documented clearly and their independence was promoted, for example people were encouraged to access activities outside of the home including education and work.

We spoke with relatives about how their loved one was supported with choice and independence. One relative said, “[Name] are involved in lots of activities away from the home, they [staff] give them a lot of independence really, take them on holidays make sure [name] has got a good quality of life.” Another relative told us, “We talk about everything what [name] would like and what [name] was like previously. They [staff] involve me in a lot of decisions about what would be good for them.”

People were empowered to enjoy relationships, including sexual relationships. One of the service managers explained how they had supported a person with this and involving other professionals. “We referred them to undertake healthy relationship work with the community nurse and staff supported them to attend, it has to be consistent (for this person). The social worker has asked them questions about their relationship and assessed to see if they have the capacity around that, we did this together. We have provided resources, healthy working booklets, and encouraged them to do ‘rules for my flat’ about what they want you to do in their flat and what

they don’t want you to do in their flat and if the other person did break the rule they would go to the staff for support.”

This approach meant people had more autonomy, choice and control over their lives, their care and support.

The provider 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.

We reviewed documentation which evidenced timely referrals to external professionals for support with deteriorating mobility, concerns about choking risks and for support with bereavement amongst other examples. Accident and incident forms demonstrated how staff had supported people to get the care and support they needed in that moment. We saw support plans around people who can experience distress behaviours or periods of mental ill health which provided staff with guidance on signs that may indicate a concern to support early intervention and minimise distress. The registered manager said, "Across our services, responsiveness is embedded as a culture and not an isolated action. Staff consistently identify changes early, act without delay, coordinate effectively with external professionals, and implement personalised interim measures to protect wellbeing while awaiting specialist input."

Where people could not communicate verbally, or their verbal communication was limited, we observed interactions between staff and people that demonstrated relationships were caring and compassionate, enabling staff to anticipate and meet people’s needs quickly. One of the service managers described how a person was involved in decisions about their support, “I know how important it is for [name] to be able to speak (signs) so we got everyone together.” A support worker we spoke with told us about their experience of supporting people who were unable to communicate verbally and how they worked with them, “Everything we [staff] do demonstrates we care, we are always talking to them and see them as full people and not just the sum of their disabilities and treat them as individuals, what we can do to improve their lives day to day, and not thinking about what limited them.”

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, they supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.

The provider had policy in place, for example a flexible working policy to support staff with maintaining their work/home life balance and staff had access to an employee assistance programme. One staff member told us, “[There is] Online stuff, employee assist, online training, discounts, all sorts, they [manager] help us sign up for [discount card] and they make sure we know everything we are eligible for.”

All staff we spoke with said they felt supported by their manager and received regular supervision. Staff told us about the management team’s approach. One staff member said, “[Team leader] is really supportive and encouraging, they give me such good feedback, it really helps build my confidence and they have encouraged me to sign up for NVQ (National Vocational Qualification)”. One of the management

team talked about how they preferred to be supported in their role, “[Registered manager] man management style is better and understanding that different people have different approaches and different ways.”

Caring for the wellbeing of staff supported with maintaining a consistent and motivated workforce enabled staff to deliver person centred care.