- Homecare service
Healthvision UK Ltd - North Kensington
Report from 18 January 2024 assessment
Contents
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
Well-led
The service had a clear organisational structure and staff had designated areas of responsibility and accountability. The provider used feedback from people as opportunities to learn and make improvements. The provider was responsive to comments or suggestions for making improvements and taking the service further forward. There were quality monitoring systems to help identify areas for improvement within the service, although some of these needed reviewing to improve their effectiveness. The service delivered support in the way people wished, including through matching of gender, age, religion and other characteristics. Staff were recruited to reflect the diverse nature of the service. Some staff rotas had been revised to ensure they respected and supported people’s individual cultures. The provider had made improvements to ensure staff felt included, able to speak up and be listened to.
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.
We saw the service endeavoured to deliver support in the way people wished, including through matching of gender, age, religion and other characteristics. Staff were recruited to reflect the diverse nature of the service. Some staff rotas had been revised to ensure they respected and supported people’s individual cultures.
Prior to this assessment, we had received concerns from some staff regarding the rotas not supporting their cultures. For example, a female care worker could not provide personal care to men but was being allocated care visits that required her to do this. We received assurance from the provider that this matter had been addressed and additional staff feedback has supported the improvements in this area.
Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
We did not look at Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.
Freedom to speak up
We were assured that the provider had made improvements to ensure staff felt included, able to speak up and be listened to. The provider had held a number of staff meetings and had invited staff to complete surveys, in order to listen to and address any concerns they had. We saw minutes of staff meetings, in which the provider demonstrated the principles of ‘you said, we did’. The implementation of a staff liaison officer would also help staff to feel more comfortable about speaking out when they wanted to.
Staff feedback, as part of this assessment, was mostly very positive and supported the provider’s assurance that concerns raised by staff during the past year have been listened to and addressed where possible.
Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
The provider’s equality and diversity policy gave a commitment to ensure that people using the service and staff with any of the legally defined protected characteristics did not experience inequality or discrimination. Protected characteristics are specific aspects of a person's identity defined by the Equality Act 2010 which includes protection from discrimination due to factors such as age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and disability.
The registered manager had sent us information, prior to this assessment, which stated that HealthVision regularly advocated for equality and inclusion and had always worked towards diversifying the team. They also told us how they worked with charities who worked alongside their employees who had disabilities. The provider explained that, in addition to recruiting international care workers, HealthVision was actively working within its local community to encourage and promote work for parents with school aged children.
Governance, management and sustainability
Staff we spoke with were mostly very positive about the governance, leadership and oversight. Office staff told us the management team supported them and they, as a team, supported each other. The provider and management team explained the various methods used to maintain consistent and effective oversight of the service. Staff told us there were clear lines of communication and all staff understood their specific areas of responsibility.
We saw the service had clear and effective governance, management and accountability arrangements in place. The provider’s quality assurance system contained key performance indicators that identified how the service was performing. These included any areas that required improvement, as well as areas where the service was accomplishing or exceeding targets. Monitoring and quality assurance audits took place at appropriate intervals and any areas identified as needing improvement were addressed accordingly. It was noted that some required actions were taking a long time to be completed. For example, there were a few outstanding actions from July 2023. There were also a few anomalies with the electronic call monitoring system. However, the provider was responsive to suggestions for improvement and we were assured that appropriate action would be taken promptly to address any shortfalls.
Partnerships and communities
We did not look at Partnerships and communities during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.
Learning, improvement and innovation
Staff told us that the provider tried very hard to “stay ahead of the game” and welcomed new ideas that may improve the quality of the service for people using it and working within it. Staff said that reflections of accidents or incidents and lessons learned were discussed and during staff meetings, as well as during supervisions. The registered manager had sent us information, prior to this assessment, which demonstrated how the provider and staff learnt from shortfalls and continually strived to improve the service. The provider told us the training manager had developed and delivered a customer services training programme in response to allegations of poor customer service. In addition, they were introducing the role of a Liaison Officer to act as a conduit between carers and management. The provider said they were hopeful that this would provide care staff with more effective opportunities to discuss and resolve any work-related grievances that they may have.
We were assured that lessons were learnt when things went wrong. Safeguarding concerns, accidents, and incidents were reviewed to ensure emerging themes had been identified and any necessary action taken. We saw there was a system for logging, recording, and investigating complaints, which staff followed appropriately.