Royal Mencap Society - Rotherham and Sheffield Domiciliary Care Agency

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

Responsive – this means we looked for evidence that the provider met people’s needs.

At our last assessment we rated this key question Good. At this assessment the rating has remained Good.

This meant people’s needs were met through good organisation and delivery.

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 were at the centre of their care and treatment choices and they decided, in partnership with people, how to respond to any relevant changes in people’s needs. People were involved in regular reviews of their care with their keyworker and the service provided opportunities for people to discuss their care in meetings, events and during activities.
Care plans were detailed with person-centred information contained within them, which would help staff to understand people as individuals. This included information about people’s background, likes, dislikes and what or who was important to them.

The provider understood the diverse health and care needs of people and their local communities, so care was joined-up, flexible and supported choice and continuity. Relatives told us staff understood people’s care needs and that staff followed the care plan. Staff and people told us there was mostly continuity of care with people having regular carers. One staff member commented, “We do our best to find out who they like to be supported by and try our best to ensure they see those people as often as we can, if someone prefers a certain person for an activity, we ensure we try to accommodate that in the rota's."

The provider supplied appropriate, accurate and up-to-date information in formats that were tailored to individual needs. One staff member told us, “Our service users have easy read information, but they often share their feedback verbally with support workers as they spend good quality time with each person. The service users have access to management telephone numbers and can ring them. Our service users do like to phone my manager as they do find him approachable."

The provider made it easy for people to share feedback and ideas, or raise complaints about their care, treatment and support. Staff involved people in decisions about their care and told them what had changed as a result. The provider actively sought feedback from people via surveys. People told us communication with the service was positive and actions were taken because of feedback provided. One relative told us, “Any problem I go to the manager. They respond well and we work out a strategy to sort it out. There has been nothing recently that has needed passing on."

The provider made sure that people could access the care, support and treatment they needed when they needed it. People were supported to access medical appointments when necessary. The service had an ‘on-call’ system in place, to ensure any concerns raised were suitably addressed, even out of hours. People told us they had the relevant contact details and knew how to contact the service.

Staff and leaders actively listened to information about people who are most likely to experience inequality in experience or outcomes and tailored their care, support and treatment in response to this. Policies on Equality and Diversity were up to date and available to staff. Staff had received training on the Equality Act and Human Rights legislation. Staff members were knowledgeable on how they should ensure people receive the same quality of care from the service.

People were supported to plan for important life changes, so they could have enough time to make informed decisions about their future, including at the end of their life. At the time of our inspection, no person was receiving end of life care. However, staff spoken to knew how to ensure these conversations were had at a time appropriate to the person and family.