WEF Care

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

The service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

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.

People told us staff treated them with kindness, compassion and dignity. They felt listened to an told us that staff understood them, including their preferences, wishes, personal histories and backgrounds. People told us staff responded to their needs promptly. People comments about staff included, "There isn’t a bad one among them, they go above and beyond"; "Staff are caring and really good with [relative] and seem to go above and beyond".

Care staff spoke about people with kindness and compassion. Leaders told us they promoted kindness, compassion and dignity by ensuring scrutiny when recruiting staff and ensuring the right staff were employed. Leaders completed spot checks to ensure all staff provided good quality, compassionate care. They told us any practise that was not in line with the values of kindness and compassion was challenged. Leaders told us about some shortfalls in compliance with the confidentiality policy they identified and how this was challenged and improved. Staff told us about a situation when a person's wife who was also their carer needed to go to a hospital over night unexpectedly . The person had no one who could help them and office member of staff volunteered to stay with the person over night until family could arrive the next day to support. This was an example of going above and beyond to show kindness and compassion.

People told us they felt that staff knew and understood them. People said staff asked them about their preferences and recorded them in the care plans.

Leaders told us they treated people as "experts in their own life" and how they try to ensure that people's choices were accommodated. For example when it comes to preferences of staff gender or call times. Staff told us they knew people well and this included having a good awareness of their personal, cultural, social and religious needs. This helped staff when communicating with people, for example having meaningful things to talk about.

There were systems and processes in place to assess, review and record people's individual needs and preferences. Peoples needs assessments included questions about their personal, cultural, social and religious needs.

People told us they had choice and control over their own care and staff encouraged them to make their own decisions. People told us staff encouraged their independence, for example by engaging them in doing task around the house or doing as much as possible for themselves during support with personal care.

Staff told us they encouraged people to remain independent and "did not take over" when supporting them with personal care. Staff told us that they supported people with social calls, such as getting out and about if this was part of people's care plan. Leaders told us how they supported people to obtain appropriate equipment to support and maximise people’s independence, for example one person was supported to receive a commode whereas other were helped with receiving appropriate walking aids.

People's needs were described in their care plans and where support with access with access to community and activities was part of their care package that was provided. There were systems to ensure people have access to specialist equipment. Provider's polices governed people's rights to making choices and decisions.

People felt listened to and understood by staff. They felt staff was good at supporting and comforting them when they did not feel well.

Staff told us they could quickly identify changes to people's well-being because they knew people well. When people needed urgent help staff felt confident to support them. Staff told us about an accident when they had to be creative in an emergency situation when a person suffered a head injury at home as a result of a fall. To stop the bleeding, whilst waiting for the ambulance, staff came up with the idea of using a sanitary pad and applied the pad with pressure to the back of the person head. This soaked up the blood whilst also created a pressure barrier in which the staff received praise from the ambulance team as quick way of thinking.

The staff we spoke to felt well supported and valued by the management. Staff comments included, "I definitely feel very supported by management". Staff were welcomed to to use office facilities to take a break and have some refreshments. Staff told us about some recent improvement at the service which had a good impact on their well being. Staff gave us examples of how their personal circumstances were taken into account by the management when they needed to take some time off or change their working patterns.

Leaders told us they were in the process of implementing changes, following a staff survey that indicated that not all staff felt their well being was being prioritised. The changes included giving more consideration to preferred working hours and travel time. There were systems in place to ensure support for new members of staff who were allocated a mentor to support them. Regular support sessions and appraisals were taking place to give staff the opportunities to provide feedback, raise concerns and suggest ways to improve the service or staff experiences.