Altogether Care - Care At Home Limited Christchurch

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

The registered managers ensured staff shared and worked in accordance with their vision of delivering personalised, respectful care they would be happy for members of their own families to receive. The service’s quality assurance processes gave the registered managers and provider clear oversight of the service and enabled them to make ongoing improvements. ensured staff understood their roles and responsibilities. Staff described the management team as approachable, supportive, and fair. They knew how to speak up about poor practice and told us they would feel able to approach managers, who they believed would deal with concerns properly and fairly.

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 registered managers ensured staff shared and worked in accordance with their vision of delivering personalised, respectful care they would be happy for members of their own families to receive. They communicated this through training, supervision, and their informal contact with staff. In providing feedback to us about their experiences, staff reflected the person-centred values of the service.

The provider's and registered managers' oversight and management of the service reflected the importance they placed on care being tailored to people's individual needs. Their process for staff recruitment helped them ensure they employed staff who shared these values.

Staff described the management team as approachable, supportive, and fair. A member of staff observed, “My line managers have my interests at heart and support me when I need them… In general, all the office staff are always friendly and supportive.”

The registered managers had the competence and skills needed to lead the service safely and effectively. They led with openness and integrity.

Staff were aware of how to speak up about poor practice and told us they would feel able to approach managers, who they believed would deal with concerns properly and fairly. Their comments included, “If I thought something was wrong, I would contact any of my direct managers”, “I can raise any concerns to my managers” and “I never hesitate to ask for assistance or advice. They have always been fair to me, and I believe to the rest of the staff as well.”

The registered managers operated with openness and honesty. They openly referred any concerns they had about people's care and welfare to the local authority safeguarding team, and notified CQC of significant occurrences as legislation requires. The provider had a whistleblowing policy that provided details of how staff could raise concerns about poor practice and wrongdoing.

The provider put in place reasonable adjustments where disabled staff needed these. The service also supported staff through initiatives such as wellbeing sessions and training up Mental Health First Aiders. The registered manager and provider promoted a respectful work environment. Staff told us they were treated fairly. The service had a diverse staff team, some of whom had been recruited from overseas. The registered managers had endeavoured to understand their diverse cultures. These staff received a dedicated welfare and ongoing pastoral support from the provider's international team. This included information about cultural differences and practical aspects of living in the UK.

Staff were expected to complete training on equality and diversity. All except brand new staff had done so, though training was planned for these staff.

Staff told us supervision meetings happened regularly and were supportive. They also confirmed senior staff regularly observed them working and provided feedback. The registered managers understood their regulatory responsibilities.

Managers and staff had clear roles and responsibilities. Staff had regular 1 to 1 supervision meetings to discuss their work and clarify any issues arising. The provider had effective processes for monitoring and improving the performance of the service and ensuring the registered managers and staff followed its policies and procedures. There were regular audits of all aspects of the service. The results were reported to the provider, along with any action plans to address any areas for improvement. The registered managers and providers monitored these action plans. Similarly, the provider monitored the registered managers' action plans following regular quality assurance surveys of people using the service, their relatives, and staff. The provider had a business contingency plan to help ensure they were prepared for emergencies, such as severe weather, unforeseen staffing shortages or malfunction of the computer system. The provider's quality review committee minutes reflected that the provider had introduced policies and procedures based on those from a specialist provider of care policies. They had done this to help ensure policies and procedures were written in plain English and reflected current legislation and best practice guidance. Policies were reviewed regularly and kept up to date. The registered managers had ensured CQC were notified of certain incidents and events as required by law.

People told us staff worked well with their health professionals and sought medical help promptly. They recognised the challenge this could present where those professional teams were experiencing high demand for their services.

The registered managers and staff worked closely with health and social care professionals in providing people's care, seeking advice when they had concerns about someone's care. Staff recognised the registered managers’ ethos of openness and transparency, which was reflected throughout our interactions with the management team.

Effective partnership working had enabled the service to provide care that had positive outcomes for people.

People’s care records and the management records reflected the service’s culture of partnership working with professionals towards positive outcomes for people.

Staff described how the management team encouraged their learning and strove towards ever better practice. This was reflected in our discussions with the management team.

The provider and registered managers shared an ethos of learning and sought the ongoing improvement of the service. They took seriously the action plans stemming from audits, quality assurance surveys and reports by stakeholders such as commissioners, using these to launch service developments. When things went wrong or did not go as well as hoped, they were open to investigating this transparently, seeking advice from professionals and making any necessary improvements.