My Homecare Crowborough

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 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 always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. People and their loved ones all reported staff treating them kindly and with respect. Comments included, “Staff are caring compassionate and kind and are always trying to engage in conversations,” “The staff are caring compassionate and kind” and “Staff are caring, kind and compassionate, all her needs are being met in terms of the personal care provided.” Another person added, “Staff knock and announce themselves before entering.” A relative described how some staff sing with their relative when carrying out personal care. They described this as making the person feel at ease, provided an understand of what was happening and in general made the experience of being supported, enjoyable. Similarly, staff told us of the importance they gave to treating people with compassion and dignity and respecting people in the same way as they would like to be respected themselves. Professionals who worked alongside staff provided similar feedback about staff and the service in general with one telling us, “My Homecare deliver compassionate, adaptive and flexible care and compassion to the individuals they support.”

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. The registered manager sought to align staff with similar interests and backgrounds to people and tried to maintain consistency among the staffing team that supported people. Staff were aware of people’s preferred routines, likes and dislikes and made them feel comfortable during care calls and made sure they had everything they needed before they left. People who enjoyed reading, doing puzzle books or watching television were left with all of these things in place as well as access to any food or drinks they may like. A person told us, “I feel listened to. They try to follow my preferred way of doing things, including the preparation of food to my liking.” A member of staff said, “People are different and we follow their needs and treat them individually.” Not all care plans contained detailed personal profile’s about people, including their social histories sand backgrounds. The registered manager told us that everyone had been given the opportunity to discuss these aspects of their lives but some had decided not to share the information. People’s wishes were respected.

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. The registered manager and all of the care staff promoted people’s independence, safely encouraging and supporting people to achieve tasks for themselves whilst being present to step in and support where needed. Some people told us that the support provided enabled them to remain living at home and to carry on with routine tasks that were important to them. A staff member said, “Independence is always promoted, it makes us person centred. If you don’t use it you lose it. Can be little things like teeth and hair, gives them a sense of self.” Care plans reflected the promotion of people’s independence by first describing the tasks and activities that people could achieve for themselves. Only after this was described did care plans move on to describes the support that might be needed to help people achieve their goals and targets.

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. Despite some people telling us that staff sometimes left earlier than their allotted time, there were no reports of staff leaving when they were needed by people. Analysis of care call times revealed that in nearly all cases care calls began on time. Protocols were in place if a person became unwell either before or during a visit, then the care staff would remain until either relative or a medical practitioner attended. Managers would be alerted and steps taken to cover subsequent calls if a staff member was delayed. When people had appointments or social events then care call times would be adjusted to fit around people’s schedules. Staff told us they had enough time to travel between scheduled care calls. People were provided with weekly rotas and some told us they had called to make adjustments and these had always been honoured.

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. Staff welfare was important to the registered manager and wider management team. Empowering staff to have the right training and support and facilitating their domestic needs and enabling staff to have the time off and away from work when needed was managed. Staff told us that knowing the support was there for them made them happier in their work and more able to deliver care in the best way possible. A wellness at work program had been introduced and this included support for any staff that might be experiencing medical or health changes that needed adjustments to enable them to either continue work or to take time off when needed. Following incidents where staff may feel upset or even traumatised, there were referral schemes available to provide additional support if required. Staff were provided with their shift patterns a month in advance allowing time for any adjustments. A staff member told us, “I think this office is the most approachable office team I’ve ever worked for.”