HomeCare Reablement Service, run by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, has been rated Outstanding overall by the Care Quality Commission.
The service was rated Outstanding for being effective and responsive. It was rated Good for being safe, caring and well-led, following the inspection which took place towards the end of 2018 and in January 2019.
A domiciliary care agency, HomeCare Reablement, provides care to people living at home. The service offers a free service for up to six weeks comprising personal care, reablement and other support. The aim of the service is to support people to regain their confidence and independent living skills, so they can continue to remain in their own homes.
The service is available for people aged 18 and above. There were 47 people using the service at the time of the inspection. The service works in close partnership with the Community Independence Service, part of a local NHS trust.
CQC received positive remarks from people who used the service and their relatives. Comments included: "Yes, I feel they are well trained, and they know what they are doing. They encouraged me to do more for myself" and "We were impressed by all the staff. They had the skills and confidence, and this inspired my relative that they were going to make progress." Another said: "A wonderful asset for the Hammersmith and Fulham community. Superb staff in all respects."
Staff said that their training programme was excellent, and it equipped them with the skills and knowledge they needed to ably meet people's needs and wishes. There were opportunities for staff to achieve national qualifications in health and social care.
CQC received immensely complimentary and detailed emails from local health care professionals about the knowledge and skills of the reablement team and how this positively impacted on the quality of effective care provided to people who used the service.
A consultant for older people's care at a local hospital stated, "The close working relationship with the reablement team has been invaluable to the assessment and management plan of frail older community dwelling patients. It has been a pleasure to work with the team of carers, independent living assessors, therapists … and team leaders.
“Reablement carers are well trained, very professional and person centred in their approach to service users. This makes a real difference to the care they deliver especially with regards to their approach to patients with dementia, mobility and continence problems, their approach to finding strategies to maintain independence regarding medication management, personal care, housework and general wellbeing."
Another doctor remarked, "I am a local GP and have had extensive experience using the reablement service. I have always found the carers to be friendly, efficient and extremely caring for the patients. When any have had health concerns about patients they have always promptly and appropriately contacted the GP service."
People said that the service was extremely responsive to their needs and they felt thoroughly supported to the meet their identified goals.
Comments from people who used the service included, "I now go out again shopping and for lunch with my (relative). I feel happy with walking short distances and feel safe again" and "After reablement I didn't need to arrange any assistance with getting washed and dressed. I have other minimal help to manage at home, but I met my goal to look after my own personal care. They did a wonderful job."
The registered manager had participated in a leadership and development programme offered by a local health care trust, known as the Quality, Service Improvement and Redesign (QSIR) practitioner programme. This included a project with four team members to develop and improve communications across the board.
Debbie Ivanova, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, said: “The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham should be proud of the HomeCare Reablement Service and its Outstanding rating.
“A consultant at a local hospital said that it had been ‘a pleasure’ to work with the team at Reablement. CQC were also told of the high praise the service received from those using Reablement and their relatives.”
You can read the inspection report in full when it is published on CQC’s website at www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-332123980
Ends
For media enquiries, contact Ray Cooling, Regional Engagement Manager (London), on 020 7448 9136 or call the press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours. Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here www.cqc.org.uk/media/our-media-office. (Please note: the duty press officer is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters).
For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.