Dorset office

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.

This is the first assessment for this service. This key question has been rated good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

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

People’s needs were assessed by the registered manager before packages of care were arranged. From these assessments initial care plans were created and once care delivery commenced, these were updated as staff and people learned more about their care needs and preferences.

Care plans contained sufficient information to enable care staff to provide person-centred support and to communicate effectively with people. A staff member told us, “Before providing care to a client I read through the care plan in order to provide the right care to the right client. The manager always gives a guide beforewe begin a new package.”

A relative was very happy with how care plans were developed, telling us, “I was involved from day one with the care plan. [Person] was very poorly at the beginning of their care support. The registered manager listened to everything and captured the information perfectly. The care plan is very accurate and is displayed on the portal.”

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.

Staff received regular training in developments in care delivery, evidence based good practice and legislation. Staff told us their training was effective and worthwhile.

During team meetings, the registered manager used scenarios to develop staff skills. For example, discussing actual events and sharing learning, or working through made up situations to offer experience of potential actions.

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 provider did not have hospital passports and did not provide healthcare professionals access to their electronic system. This meant in emergency situations, information such as people’s health conditions, prescribed medicines and basic care needs were not immediately available. The provider would share information needed on request by telephone. However, this could potentially cause a delay should a person have a significant health concern and require emergency care
The provider ensured appropriate referrals were made to external healthcare professionals when needed. A relative told us, “The care team frequently expressed concerns about [person’s] health and brought it to the attention of the manager at Pathways who would then contact me.Quite often I saw notes they left for the Community Nurse team asking them to check [person’s] legs, feet etc because they were worried.” This evidenced staff identified concerns and shared them quickly with appropriate people or professionals.

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support.

Staff supported people with their day-to-day health needs such as administering medicines and maintaining healthy skin. In addition, they supported them to access the community and with tasks such as light cleaning, so their home environments were well maintained. This helped to promote positive mental health.

Guidance from healthcare professionals was included in care planning and followed by staff when supporting people.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves.

Care plans were reviewed each month, and as staff learnt more about people’s preferences, care documents were updated to reflect their holistic needs and support staff to meet people’s individual outcomes.

The provider ensured peoples nutrition and hydration needs were met. For 1 person, they would cook meals from scratch such as steaks as this was their preferred menu. Fresh foods were provided when possible to ensure people had healthy diets.

Staff skills were monitored through regular spot checks and completing annual competence reviews. Spot checks looked at both care skills and how staff approached and communicated with people ensuring safe and respectful care delivery took place.

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

When we inspected, people using the service had all been assessed as having capacity to make their own decisions. This meant we could not review records such as best interest decisions. However, the registered manager had experience of working with Mental Capacity Act assessments and understood their duty under the Act. They were also aware of the process to request an application for a community Deprivation of Liberty Safeguarding authorisation should they need one.