The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found the quality of care provided by West STSS (Short Term Support Service) Hexham to be Outstanding following an inspection in July 2017 and December 2017. There was a delay in publishing the report which was in no way attributable to the provider.
West STSS (Short Term Support Service provides domiciliary care and support to people in their own homes, often following hospital discharge. At the time of the inspection the agency was providing care for around 52 people over the wider rural area of West Northumberland.
The service was rated Outstanding for caring, responsiveness and well-led, and Good for safe and effective. A copy of the latest report can be found on our website.
At a previous inspection in June 2015 the service was rated good overall, with the responsive domain being rated as outstanding.
Some of the features of the inspection included:
Staff were exceptional in enabling people to become independent in various activities of daily living. On reviewing people's care plans inspectors noted that each area of improvement was clearly documented. Inspectors saw that people had set regular goals and staff encouraged people to strive for improvement. People spoken to told us how the staff supported them to gradually make improvements and to change their life.
Inspectors saw that the registered manager was involved in work within the local community and demonstrated a passion in continuously driving the service forward and was always looking for opportunities to develop. Very positively, external professionals spoke highly of the service and said that they could depend on it - the registered manager and the staff were very responsive
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North, said:
“This is a service that provides exceptional care; I was particularly impressed with the way in which the registered manager adopted innovative ways of improving care such as working within the local community.
“We found the provider's integrated model of care helped facilitate hospital discharges. Over the past year the service had accepted 1917 referrals and spent a total of 11826 hours in people's homes. These figures demonstrated that the service was having an impact on the use of beds at the local acute trust.
“The service had feedback systems to ensure they were providing effective care. Reviews were carried out once or twice a week by supervisors to monitor people's plans of care and ensure they were happy with the service provided. The local Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust carried out a quarterly survey and the provider too also carried out their own surveys and we saw that the feedback was consistently positive.
“We found the service was exceedingly flexible and responsive to people's individual needs and preferences. Staff said they were able to be very responsive because times of visits were flexible. They told us that they were never rushed by senior staff and worked at their own pace. This was confirmed by people and relatives who told us staff often went above and beyond what was expected of them
“We looked at written feedback provided by people who used the service and relatives complementing West STSS on the quality of care. Staff spoke with pride about the importance of ensuring people's needs were met. Service users and relatives said the quality of care had significantly reduced the time they needed to stay in hospital
“It is clear the care being provided by the West STSS (Short Term Support Service) is outstanding and I congratulate all concerned on improving the rating from Good to Outstanding. It is fully deserved.”
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This is a service that provides exceptional care
Debbie Westhead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care in the North