Archived: Rainbow Trust Childrens Charity 9

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People found this service good. They described the care workers as “Compassionate.” They provided care and support in a very flexible manner to meet the changing needs of the families they worked with.

The team’s five care workers were experienced and well trained. They specialised within the team and two were neonatal workers and three care staff worked with children and teenagers.

Care workers worked in partnership with healthcare professionals in hospital and the community. They also liaised with social care and housing professionals on behalf of families. They advocated on behalf of families and attended meetings, so the parent’s views could be heard.

The registered manager assessed that they had the staffing capacity to start working with new family referrals. Care workers had a case load of allocated families and built up a working relationship with them.

An initial assessment identified immediate support needs and assessed risks to children and the family. Care plans were reviewed on a frequent basis to reflect changing care needs. People’s diverse needs were supported. The Trust worked in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and obtained people’s consent to provide care and share information.

The registered manager and care workers had received safeguarding adult and children’s training. They demonstrated they would recognise signs and symptoms of abuse and knew how to report concerns.

The registered manager was described as “approachable” and “supportive” by staff and they audited and undertook checks to assure the quality of the service provided.

Rating at last inspection: At the last inspection on 6 and 12 October 2016 the rating was good overall.

Why we inspected: This was a scheduled inspection based on the previous rating of good.

Follow up: We will continue with ongoing monitoring and re-inspect in line with our ratings schedule unless we receive information that is of concern that might result in us bringing the inspection forward.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rainbow Trust Children's Charity 9 provides support to children who have life threatening or terminal illness. The charity provides support to the children and their families in their own homes, in hospital and in the community. The regulated activity is personal care but this is provided only when needed, for example, changing a baby's nappy when providing support. At the time of inspection there were 112 children being supported by the service and two received occasional support with personal care.

The service had an experienced registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Procedures were in place to safeguard children against the risk of abuse. Staff understood the importance of keeping children safe and of reporting any concerns.

Risks were assessed so action could be taken to minimise them.

Staff recruitment procedures were in place and being followed. Staff were available to meet the needs of the children using the service.

Staff received the training and supervision they needed to provide them with the knowledge and skills to care and support children and their families effectively.

Staff respected the rights of children and their families to make choices about their care and support and knew to act in their best interests.

Staff were able to support children with their nutritional needs when they required it.

Staff knew children’s healthcare needs and supported families to attend appointments. Staff knew the action to take in an emergency to summon help and support children and their families.

Parents were very happy with the service their child received and felt the whole family was well supported by the service. Staff understood the importance of providing person-centred care and support to each child and their family.

Staff understood the end of life care and support children and families needed and provided an ongoing service to support the family through their bereavement.

Care records reflected the care and support children and their families needed, including any personal support needs for children using the service. Records were reviewed periodically to keep the information current.

Procedures for raising complaints were in place and parents were aware of how to raise a concern so it could be addressed.

Families could contact the service easily and were happy with the way the service was run. Staff said the provider and the registered manager were very supportive and accessible.

Systems were in place for monitoring the service being provided and to identify areas for improvement so this could be achieved.

We viewed comment cards people using the service had completed. Comments included "Thanks so much for last week, you are incredible with my child" and "thank you so much for all your help and support, I really appreciate it."

All the families we spoke with had a high opinion of the charity. People told us they were given support that was tailored to their needs and they had been involved in all the decisions relating to their care and support. People said they were given all the necessary information before their care and support commenced. Staff told us that they were provided with adequate support and training to carry out their job role effectively and meet the needs of people using the service.

The charity had systems in place to gain people's views of the service and monitor the quality of service provided. A complaints procedure was in place and people were aware of the steps to take if they needed to make a complaint.

Staff told us that they were offered appropriate support by the provider and this included non - managerial supervision with a counsellor which helped them debrief on some of the situations they were dealing with and bereavement of children they would have cared for.

You can see our judgements on the front page of this report.