Aspens Supported Living & Outreach (Kent)

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence.

At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has remained good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 67 (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 made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

People’s health, social and emotional needs were assessed before they moved into their home. These assessments were used to develop the person’s care plan. One relative told us, “She has a robust care plan”. Another relative said, “I put the care plan together with staff. It’s changing and getting tweaked all the time – they go over and above to accommodate her needs.”

People were invited to look at their future home and meet with some of the staff. This was to help people decide if they wanted to move in.

Where people had a one-page profile, this set out the most important information that staff needed to know about the person to be able to support them in the right way. Staff were knowledgeable about people’s care and support needs. They were able to describe peoples preferred routines, the best ways to communicate with people and how to support people with their physical and emotional well-being.People had communication passports. These are tools to guide staff about how people with limited or no verbal communication present when they were happy, sad or in pain.

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

People’s needs around their eating and drinking had been assessed and guidance sought from health care professionals. Staff had worked with health care professionals to support people to eat healthily and for people with a food obsession. For one person this obsession had previously prevented them from engaging in other activities including going out. Staff confirmed that the person was now undertaking some daily living tasks and enjoying their time away from their home. For another person a change from caffeinated to decaffeinated drinks had improved their well-being.

The provider used positive behaviour support (PBS) which is a recognised proactive support framework for people who find it difficult to communicate their anxieties. Staff recorded the detail of any incidents, what happened before the incident and any consequences as a result. These records were reviewed by the PBS team to identify any patterns or trends. For example, for one person it had been identified that staff needed to increase the person’s opportunities to take part in activities.

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services.

The service worked with a wide range of health and care professionals including community learning disability nurses, epilepsy nurse, speech and language therapists and occupational therapist. Where guidance had been provided by these professionals, we saw it had been recorded in people’s care notes and that it was followed by care staff.

We received positive feedback from health and social care professionals about how staff, teams and services worked together. Comments included, “I have found staff to be interested and mostly receptive to my ideas”; “Aspens have provided and continue to provide excellent support. (Named staff) is very proactive in contacting the team if extra support is needed”; and “There had been changes in staff practice and coordination which had benefitted and improved the way people could communicate with the staff team."

The provider did not fully support people to manage their health and wellbeing as some people’s health care records were not accurate or up to date.

Relatives told us people had regular health care appointments to promote their health and wellbeing. Comments included, “She always attends all of her appointments. Staff meet me there” and, “Staff run him to the GP, but I go with him to the dentist. Staff do ring me if there’s a problem or if he’s not well”. People told us staff supported them when they were unwell. One person described how when they had a cold, staff went with them to the pharmacy to get some medicine.

However, we found that health and care passports and hospital passports had missing or incorrect information about people’s health. The aim of these passports is to inform other professionals of people’s individual's health conditions, medication, communication preferences, and any specific support requirements they may have.Passports were missing essential information such as if a person was on any prescribed medication, had any medical conditions or was at risk of self-harm and healthcare appointments they had attended.

There was inconsistency in how the provider monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it.

People’s care and treatment was monitored but shortfalls in assessments of potential risks and health care records meant this was not consistent across the service.

People had been consulted about their goals and aspiration as part of their person-centred care. However, there was some inconsistency between people about the regularity of these reviews. Some people had been given clear steps to work towards to help the person achieve their goal on a long-term basis. A new goal planning book had been developed to help people track the steps they needed to undertake to reach their goals. Goals included all aspects of people’s lives including independent living skills and social activities.

For people who had complex needs, weekly and monthly reports of their progress were recorded and shared with family members. Photographs were taken and shared with family members of people having positive outcomes such as participating in activities.

The provider told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.

Staff understood that one of the principles of person-centred care was to offer people choices and act on their wishes. We observed this practice in our visits to people’s homes. Where people needed additional support to make choices, alternative methods were used to communicate with people. This included visual aids such as pictures, signs, or objects of reference. Objects of reference arephysical items used to represent a person, place or activity. A health care partner feedback that staff always acted in people’s best interests.

We checked whether the service was working within the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). Where people were assessed as lacking capacity to make decisions, appropriate procedures were followed. Decisions had been recorded evidencing that people had been assessed to check if they could understand, retain, and weigh up the information to communicate their decision. Where it had been assessed that people did not have the capacity to make a specific decision, these had been made in people’s best interests.