We are With You Wigan and Leigh

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

This means we looked for evidence that the service 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.

Staff were polite, respectful, supportive and responsive when caring for clients. Staff understood and respected the individual needs of each client. Staff gave clients help, emotional support and advice when they needed it. Staff involved clients and relatives where appropriate in their care planning.

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 service mostly treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Staff attitudes and behaviours when interacting with clients showed that they were discreet, respectful and responsive, providing clients with help, emotional support and advice at the time they needed it. We observed staff offering reassurance and support to clients during group sessions. Clients gave generally positive feedback about staff that worked for the service.

Staff supported clients to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition. Clients that we spoke to felt that staff mostly helped them to understand their care and treatment along with any options or choices related to this.

Staff directed clients to other services when appropriate and, if required, supported them to access those services. Staff gave examples of how they supported clients to access other services as necessary.

Clients said that the majority of staff treated them well and behaved appropriately towards them. Clients gave mostly positive feedback about staff, although did note there were some staff that were not always as friendly and caring as they would expect.

Staff understood the individual needs of clients, including their personal, cultural, social and religious needs.

Staff said they could raise concerns about disrespectful, discriminatory or abusive behaviour or attitudes towards clients without fear of the consequences.

Staff maintained the confidentiality of information about clients.

The service 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, goals, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

The service made adjustments for disabled clients, for example, by ensuring disabled people’s access to premises and by meeting clients’ specific communication needs. The service had wheelchair access and a lift at the Wigan location which could be used for clients with mobility issues. Staff could access interpretation and translation services as necessary.

Staff ensured that clients could obtain information on treatments, local services, patients’ rights, how to complain and so on. The information provided was in a form accessible to the particular client group. Staff made information leaflets available in languages spoken by clients. Managers advised that the service could provide leaflets in multiple languages and had used their client record system to review which were the most commonly spoken languages in the areas to help them tailor the leaflets for those clients.

Managers noted that the service had an increasing number of clients with ADHD or autism and recognised the importance of ensuring that the service adapted its approach to meet those clients’ needs.

The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Staff told us about how they discussed care and treatment options with clients and how the client’s individual preferences would be considered where appropriate.

Staff signposted clients to supportive services within the community such as mutual aid groups and services offering psychosocial intervention strategies.

Staff supported clients to maintain relationships and networks that were important to them. They supported clients in maintaining relationships with their friends and family while they were using the service.

Staff supported clients to access activities and the local community to promote and support their independence, health and wellbeing. Staff gave examples of how the service had engaged with external agencies and stakeholders with specific clients where appropriate.

Staff supported and enabled clients to have choice and control over their own care and to make decisions about their care, treatment and wellbeing.

The service 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.

Staff were aware of and dealt with any specific risk issues, such as physical or mental health concerns, and care planned for these accordingly.

Staff identified and responded to changing risks to, or posed by, clients. Staff explained how they would have oversight of clients and what factors they would need to be aware of to identify any changing risks. Staff knew how to escalate any concerns and who they could contact for advice and support.

Staff gave examples of how they had taken action where they had concerns about specific clients, including liaising with external agencies and undertaking welfare checks to the client’s home address.

Staff worked with clients to develop crisis plans and relapse prevention strategies.

The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.

Staff mostly felt respected, supported and valued. Staff gave positive feedback about managers within the service and the support that they provided.

Staff felt positive and proud about working for the provider and their team.

Staff had access to support for their own physical and emotional health needs. Managers advised how they had oversight of and supported staff who may have physical or emotional health needs and could give examples of how they had managed these situations. Staff felt that, where they may have needed additional support or adjustments from managers, that this had been managed well.

In the 12 months prior to the assessment, the service had an average sickness rate of 7.1% and an average turnover rate of 26.4%. Managers noted that there had been a higher number of staff on long term sick but that this had significantly reduced as of the time of the assessment. Managers were considering how the turnover rate could be reduced and ways in which they might be able to better support staff to ensure they remain in the service.

There was an ongoing issue within the service due to the fact that staff were on different pay conditions. Managers were aware of this issue and were undertaking ongoing discussions and actions to manage this.