The Sussex Village Homecare Service Limited

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 service made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them. The management team completed assessments with people, they documented their preferences and needs directly onto care plans for staff to instantly access. People and their loved ones contributed to an ‘all about me’ form to provide staff a deeper understanding about people’s wishes, preferences, backgrounds and histories.

The service 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. For example, the registered manager used the Waterlow tool to assess people’s risks of sustaining pressure damage to their skin. Care plans were developed to guide staff on actions to minimise pressure damage, for example, creams and position change regimes.

The service worked well across teams and services to support people. Staff liaised with health care professionals to ensure information was shared in a timely way. A visiting healthcare professional told us, “The staff and management always contact us if they have any concerns or for advice.” A person said, “They have contacted a doctor for me before when I felt under the weather. I am very fortunate, they have kept me very well.”

The service supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Some people required support to manage their meals. One person lived with diabetes and had unstable blood glucose levels for some time. Staff worked with the district nurse team to ensure the person was offered meals at a time to suit their insulin administration. This routine benefited the person; their blood glucose levels stabilised which meant they required less visits from the district nurse team.

The service routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it, where needed, staff sought professional advice. People were supported by a range of professionals including district nurses, palliative nurses and occupational therapists. Staff were provided with updates and followed their advice. A staff member told us, “We have an online group which [management team] updates, they also put updates in the purple file. We have body maps for [person] which we have to fill out with any changes to their skin, we say where concerns are so we can report onwards. The other professionals can see the folder (with the body map contained.)”

The service told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment. People and their relatives told us staff consistently asked for consent for various decisions and respected their right to decline. A staff member told us about a person who displays anxiety and said, “I always go in and introduce myself, I ask if they are happy for me to provide care for them. One particular person, every single thing we do we ask for permission and check that they are ok with us helping them.”