Paradise Hope Ltd

On this page

• Overview
• Learning culture
• Safe systems, pathways and transitions
• Safeguarding
• Involving people to manage risks
• Safe environments
• Safe and effective staffing
• Infection prevention and control
• Medicines optimisation

Safe – this means we looked for evidence that people were protected from abuse and avoidable harm.

At our last assessment we rated this key question Good. At this assessment the rating has remained the same. This meant people were safe and protected from avoidable harm. This meant people were safe and protected from avoidable harm.

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 had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. Staff listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events.

None of the people and relatives we spoke reported any safety concerns with the service. They said they had confidence that if they had these would be addressed as relations between themselves and the service was positive.

Systems and procedures were in place to learn from incidents and promote safety. The registered manager told us they would promptly address any concern reported to them.

Staff told us they were assured concerns were investigated in an open and transparent way by managers and learning from incidents were shared with all staff. One staff member said, “If any slight problem occurs the management look into them and shares these with all of the staff group.”

The provider worked with people and healthcare partners to establish and maintain safe systems of care, in which safety was managed or monitored. They made sure there was continuity of care, including when people moved between different services. One person told us, “The referral to Business Box was after I came out of hospital and my 2 daughters were involved. It all went smoothly and to plan.”

Staff and leaders demonstrated awareness around the importance of joined up and safe care pathways. Systems were in place to share relevant information when people’s needs changed or if they moved between other services.

People’s care records were sufficiently detailed and reflected their needs. This provided staff with sufficient guidance to support people safely. One staff member said, “The care plans and risk assessments cover all aspects of people’s care needs. They contain the most important information when ‘clients’ begin to receive care and then become more and more detailed as we get to know ‘clients’ more.”

Care records were stored securely and accessible to all staff within their portable devices.The registered manager ensured they were able to meet people’s needs by first undertaking assessments with them and their families together with any other professionals involved at the time they were referred.

The provider worked with people and healthcare partners to understand what being safe meant to them and the best way to achieve that. Staff concentrated on improving people’s lives while protecting their right to live in safety, free from bullying, harassment, abuse, discrimination, avoidable harm and neglect. The provider shared concerns quickly and appropriately.

All the people and relatives we spoke with said they were safely supported by the service. One person said, “They [carers] are absolutely wonderful, and I feel safe with them all.”

Staff had received safeguarding training and knew the safeguarding policy and procedure. They understood their responsibilities and spoke confidently about recognising signs of abuse and keeping people safe from avoidable harm. They said managers took safeguarding matters seriously.

Equally managers knew the requirement for them to report safeguarding matters to external agencies and told us they worked openly and collaboratively with them. The registered manager told us, “We actively encourage matters of concern be reported to us by our ‘clients’ and staff and treat them with the utmost seriousness. For instance, I understand agencies such as the local authority must always be notified where safeguarding concerns arise. This includes situations where abuse or neglect is suspected or alleged in relation to areas such as physical, emotional and financial abuse."

The provider worked with people to understand and manage risks by thinking holistically. Staff provided care to meet people’s needs that was safe, supportive and enabled people to do the things that mattered to them.

The provider worked together with people and their relatives to understand, assess, and manage risks to their health and well-being. They had oversight of risk by having frequent dialogue and reviews of people’s care to provide ongoing assurance risk was continually managed effectively.

Staff delivered care in a safe and supportive way to people enabling them to live their lives as safely and independently as possible. They were provided with accurate and reflective care plans and risk assessments. One staff member said, “We have time to read care plans. These are stored within our devices and are updated when things change or following a review."

The provider detected and controlled potential they faced within people’s homes. They made sure equipment and the different environments they worked at were as safe as practicably possible for people and themselves to reduce risk.

Staff continually assessed environmental risk at people’s homes. These risks were also contained within people’s care records. One person said, “With things like my catheter bag they make sure they deal with it properly when they are here and when they leave me.” A staff member said, “Lots of people have equipment in their homes and we ensure these are safe to use and stored wherever possible out of harm’s way.”

A 24/7 out of office hours procedure was in place for staff, people and relatives so managers could always be contacted for support. People repeatedly told us they could contact the service whenever they needed to, and staff confirmed out of hours arrangements were effective.

The provider made sure there were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff, who received effective support, supervision and development. They worked together well to provide safe care to meet people’s individual needs. A robust recruitment policy was in place to ensure staff were recruited safely so, as far as possible, only suitable staff with the right skills and experience were employed.

People told us staff arrived on time and stayed for the length of time agreed and carried out everything they should do, and they didn’t feel rushed. One relative told us, “They always come on time. Occasionally they can be late, but it is to be expected from time to time with the traffic and weather. They always do everything they should do.”

An effective scheduling system was in place to plan and monitor care visits. The system recorded staffs’ start and end times of their visits. This enabled the provider to have oversight of care calls to confirm people received their care for the agreed time. Staff told us rotas were always shared in advance. They said their calls were grouped together into specific geographical areas to provide them with adequate travelling times between calls and take breaks.

Staff were suitably trained and experienced to deliver safe care. A range of eLearning was and in person training had been completed by staff according to their roles. Where any delegated health task (a task social care staff undertake which is transferred to them by a health clinician) was delivered staff had received the required training for these tasks, such as catheter care, by a qualified health professional.

Training matrices confirmed staff training was in date. Staff told us the training received provided them with the right skills to deliver safe care in line with current practice. They gave positive feedback on the overall induction, initial shadowing of care calls, and the ongoing training provided.

The provider assessed and managed the risk of infection effectively. People told us staff wore Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) when delivering care and disposed of it safely. One person said, “The carers always wear gloves and aprons.”

Staff said they provided with adequate stock of PPE to manage the risk of infection whilst in people’s homes and, protect themselves from the risk of the spread of infection.

An infection prevention and control policy (IPC) was in place. Staff had undertaken infection prevention and control training.

The provider made sure that medicines and treatments were safe and met people’s needs, capacities and preferences. Staff had been trained and had their competencies reviewed in the safe delivery of medicines to ensure safe practices were always followed.

We reviewed people’s medicine administration records (MAR’s) and found they were completed correctly. One person said, “Carers give me my medicines, and it’s all recorded in a book. I get them at the right time.”

Staff we spoke with told us their training was in date, and they received refresher training. Our review of training records confirmed this.