St John Ambulance - Homeless Service

This was the service’s first inspection. We rated it as good because:

• Staff provided good care and treatment. Staff worked well together for the benefit of service users, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information.
• Staff controlled infection risks well. Staff assessed risks and acted on them by signposting service users appropriately to GPs and other services as needed.
• Staff treated service users with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to service users.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of service users’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for treatment.
• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of service users receiving treatment. Staff were clear about their roles and accountability. The service engaged well with the service users and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However:

• The provider was in the process of recruiting to a new nurse and a podiatrist post. The manager told us they had contacted some recruitment agencies and posted the vacancies on various websites.

• The provider needs to improve on the staff mandatory training compliance because only 69% of the staff had completed their mandatory training This meant that the provider could not always be assured staff were suitably skilled and competent to carry out their role.

• The provider was not routinely completing audits of their supplies in both Brighton and Hastings and therefore several first aid dressings were out of date or about to go out of date.