GoodOaks Homecare

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 relatives spoke highly of the care team. Their comments included, “They are kind and quite different characters, they are efficient and a very warm people.” And “We are very lucky with the carers. I could never say anything bad about them.” Staff told us how they ensured people’s privacy and dignity was always respected. A staff member gave examples of how they promoted people’s dignity and told us, “We use modesty covers. We close curtains, if needed. We wait outside giving them time to use the toilet.” The registered manager had signed up to be a dignity champion, they role modelled by treating people with respect and encouraged their staff to also take the pledge.

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 and managers spoke about people with kindness, admiration and respected their strengths. People were treated as they wished to be treated, one person liked to practice their faith, staff supported this and made sure they were able to go to their chosen place of worship. A staff member told us about a person they supported and said, “I take time to learn about clients' cultural and social needs as well as their hobbies, interests and skills to provide respectful and personalised care. A resident I support loves films and always talk about them. Mostly at dinner time they choose a movie to watch together and we enjoy doing that all the time. Now they’re teaching me how to play chess.” People told us staff knew them well and respected their individualities, a relative said, “My [relative] got married a couple of weeks ago and [person] came to the wedding, [person] would not have been able to come without [staff member’s] help. [Staff member] is outstanding.”

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. People and their relatives gave examples of how their autonomy was respected, a relative commented, “I'm not there, but I did ask [person] once and they said staff gives them the flannel and [person] washes their own front, which I thought was decent.” A person said, “Oh yes, they encourage me to be as independent as possible which is good.” A staff member told us, “We encourage them (people) to carry out task for themselves and we will help if and when needed. All our care is person-centred. We constantly offer the clients choice to choose what they would prefer.” A staff member supported a person when out shopping, they told us how they ensured the person could make choices but their role was to make sure the person managed their spending money appropriately and to document what had been spent which they did with the person.

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. The registered manager conducted care reviews with people and visited them at their homes. They told us at a recent review a person wanted to make changes to their support and was creating a powerpoint presentation for staff based on the adjustments they wished to make. Staff recorded concerns and flagged to office staff if there had been an incident involving people or a change in needs. A staff member said, “If I notice a difference with the clients, I send a message on (communication app) so the office will know what to adjust and change.” People’s care plans contained contact details for professionals involved in the person’s treatment should staff need to make urgent contact with them.

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. Staff told us their shift patterns suited their personal lives and they could make adjustments as needed. The provider had sourced a 24 hour employee assistance organisation where staff could anonymously make contact to discuss any area of concern they may have in their personal or work lives. Staff told us they felt appreciated, comments included, “I feel valued since starting to work there because whenever I have challenges and problems or requesting for different times of working, they do value me. If I have problems they adjust my rota. When I am working, I do my work well when I am happy, they consider my family life on my side.” The service ran a ‘staff member of the month’ initiative to appreciate staff who had gone the extra mile. The service was involved in community and charitable projects and paid their staff to volunteer for events.