APT Care Nottingham

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• 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

Management and staff were clear about their roles and responsibilities and there was an effective governance process and system in place. The registered manager had clear oversight of the service and was able to promote good person-centred care. The leadership team provided a compassionate, capable and inclusive leadership team which supported staff to carry out their roles to a high standard. The provider fostered an open culture and staff felt confident in approaching management if there was a need to. The provider focused on learning, improvement and innovations to ensure care standards were maintained. The registered manager had ensured statutory notifications were consistently submitted to stakeholders as required. There were quality assurances processes in place and any feedback given was acted upon. The management team were experienced and capable which provided a well-led service.

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 did not look at Shared direction and culture during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

The nominated individual spoke with the inspection team about recruiting the right people into roles. They described the recruitment process for the registered manager and how they sought out someone that had the right experience and skills but also passion for the role and shared their organisations values and vision.

The service had a compassionate, capable and inclusive leadership team who communicated effectively with staff, sought their input and feedback and provided them with the support they needed to effectively carry out their role. The registered manager told us that the nominated individual provided them with support with their professional development as well as providing day to day input and support and opportunities to discuss how things were at work and how they were feeling. They told is, “I know [Nominated individual] listens to me and if I had a problem, they would address it.” This compassionate approach was cascaded to the entire staff team. All of the staff told us that the registered manager was kind, caring and helpful and they felt comfortable approaching them to discuss anything. Staff told us they had meetings and opportunities to sit down and discuss things honestly and contribute ideas for the running of the service.

The provider fostered an open culture where staff felt able to speak up and their voice would be heard. Staff told us they were aware of the Whistleblowing Policy and felt confident in approaching the registered manager or escalating concerns to the nominated individual.

We did not look at Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

The provider had a current Business Continuity Plan which was regularly reviewed. There were appropriate policy and procedures in place which included data protection and the provider worked in line with statutory and regulatory requirements. There were processes that ensured good governance, quality assurance and management of the service. Staff had clearly defined roles and responsibilities and job descriptions to ensure staff had clarity regarding this.

The provider used effective governance to manage and deliver good quality, sustainable care. The nominated individual described systems in place to support the registered manager with better oversight of the service and had identified that the quality of care was dependent on the capacity of the registered manager to effectively carry out their role. The nominated individual told us, “Part of good governance is realising what management capacity is, we don’t want the quality [of care] to dip.” The leadership teams approach ensured that people continued to receive good quality care and support.

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.

The leadership team and staff understood the importance of learning, for example when something went wrong, and using this to make improvements to the service. The registered manager told us that they hold a “surgery” once a week for staff so that they can discuss any recent issues and learning, and improvements made. They also used the surgeries as an opportunity to identify any additional learning the team may need and support with embedding learning. They said, “We have a surgery every Thursday evening and identify specific areas to highlight e.g. dementia. We also have revisited a recent issue identified to improve ways of working.”

We observed that incidents, accidents and near misses were reviewed by the registered manager and themes and trends were identified and any improvements identified were recorded on an action plan and implemented. The provider had recently implemented a new digital system which was tailor made for the service. The use of the system was being rolled out to staff with training and practical video clips to support staffs understanding of the system. The system records all aspects of people’s care and support, holds care planning documents, is used to record any accidents or incidents, and alerted the management team when concerns were recorded. The implementation of the digital system supported improved oversight of the service for the management team meaning they could more easily identify issues and implement improvements.