Caremark Northampton

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 inspection 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 71 (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 registered manager met with people and their relatives before packages of care started to ensure their needs could be met by the service. The registered manager completed a needs assessment which detailed people’s health, communication, interests, preferences and support needs. Further development was required to ensure this information was reflected in all people’s care plans which the registered manager was aware of. A person told us, “They (staff) understand all of my needs, they (staff) always get my breakfast in the morning or prepare lunch for later”. The registered manager assured us that improvements would be made to care plans following our assessment.

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.  People were supported with their nutrition and hydration where required. The registered manager was aware of the good practice standard to implement tools to monitor people’s nutrition and hydration intake where risks are identified. People received support from the same group of care staff which enabled consistency and familiarity. This was important particularly for people with dementia. A relative told us, “The carers are always on time, and we have the same carer which helps as [person] has dementia.” Another relative said, “The care teams are great at motivating [person] to eat and drink and they reminisce with her and play music.”

The service worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services.  The service had a system in place for staff to communicate with each other which enabled them to effectively deliver people’s care and support. Staff had access to an app on their electronic devices where updates and messages could be shared between staff instantaneously. A relative said, “The communication between the carers and the office seems to be very good.” The registered manager worked well with other professionals to ensure people received effective care and support. A relative said, “The care agency have a good relationship with the GP surgery. Between the 2 of them, everything always gets sorted”.

The service supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. However, people’s care plans required further detail around individual health conditions including signs of deterioration and action to take in response. Most people using the service managed their own health and wellbeing with the support from their loved ones. Where people required support, such as making phone calls to a person’s GP, staff supported people to do this. Staff demonstrated they had the knowledge to monitor and identify a deterioration in a person’s health and due to a consistent staff team, knew people well. A staff member said, “There are different signs that can show a person needs help, you can see by emotional signs, physical signs or behavioural signs depending on the situation.”

The service routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves.  For example, a person wanted to be able to sleep upstairs, however, their mobility needs, and equipment required for this, meant this was not possible for them. The service worked with other professionals to support this person to improve their mobility, which meant they had a change in equipment and enabled them to access the stairs.

The service told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.  People’s consent to care and support was respected by staff. A staff member said, “To seek consent I would verbally ask for it, if someone is unable to consent verbally this may be attained via body language.” Where a person lacked capacity to consent to decisions about their care and treatment, systems and processes were in place to ensure decisions made were in the person’s best interest and in line with the Mental Capacity Act.