Be Caring Leeds

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

Care was personalised to the individual and people's feedback was sought to improve the service. People felt confident complaints would be acted upon. The manager understood their responsibilities and there was a process in place to obtain information about how people communicate. The registered manager had been proactive in responding to feedback received and had implemented changes based on feedback.

This service scored 79 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People received care and support based on their individual care and support needs, routines, and preferences. People participated in interests, hobbies and activities which were important to them. This included community, social and recreational opportunities. We saw evidence of good news stories such as a person who had been supported to start knitting again and another where a person had missed cooking, so restarting this activity had been arranged, with shopping for ingredients and now trying new recipes.

Staff demonstrated a good awareness of people’s individual care and support needs, routines, and preferences. A staff member said, “Care is very person centred.” Another staff member said, “we support people to do things how and when they want.”

People were supported to have contact with other healthcare professionals and access healthcare.

The registered manager told us how they work with other professionals to ensure people have access to good care and support.

Health professionals spoke positively regarding the care provision at Be Caring and the way staff treated people. They commented “Be Caring understand the service users’ needs profoundly and make contact if they have concerns about a person that needs specialist input. The carers and care company are kind, compassionate and professional. They are conscientious, and caring. They adhere to record keeping, safeguarding and policies to care for the person and for the carers.”

People’s care records demonstrated that a multi-disciplinary approach was taken to care provisions, where necessary and appropriate, external professionals were involved in people's care, for example, dieticians and GP’s.

We saw evidence that although some individuals fed back they had issues with language barriers, the provider could evidence they had acted on this promptly and robustly. They provided evidence that they had introduced a new communications programme as a result of people's feedback. The aim of this was to assist with communication and build relationships.

The manager and staff understood the Accessible Information Standard, and the provider had implemented some communication aids such as a using google translate for a gentleman whose first language was Polish. The provider had taken action in response to people's feedback about communication barriers with some staff.

Processes to ensure people’s communication needs were identified, recorded, and shared with staff were in place. Reasonable adjustments had been made for those people who did not speak English as a first language or had difficulties reading or writing. As new challenges regarding individuals needs were highlighted, the provider worked with the individual to overcome any barriers.

People and relatives knew how to raise concerns about their experiences of care and support, and people felt confident complaints would be taken seriously and explored thoroughly.

The provider could talk us through actions taken following a recent complaint. We were assured regarding how feedback was acted on and how people were kept informed of what improvements were made as a result.

The provider had a complaints policy, systems and processes were embedded to learn from any information of concern received. We saw evidence that people, relatives, or staff had been given the opportunity to feedback about their experiences of Be Caring. Recent surveys had been conducted and most responses had been positive, improvements taken as a result of feedback were documented and shared. The provider demonstrated staff meetings had taken place, and full documentation of the meetings and agreed actions was available.

People were not sure about this question; however, they had nothing negative to say and felt they were treated fairly.

Staff and management told us they would challenge any decisions made by other health professionals if they felt they were unfair or not reflective of the person's needs.

We received positive feedback from the local commissioning team about Be Caring and their ability to ensure people could access treatment.

People's care records demonstrated that where people required the support and intervention of external health care professionals, this was provided. This demonstrated people had access to the care they needed.

People told us staff provided care and support which protected their rights. People’s care plans contained current information about their wishes in relation to how their social, cultural, and spiritual needs should be met. People were mostly happy with the care provided and told us they had the opportunity to feedback about any issues should this be required.

People were engaged and supported by staff to be included and have the same opportunity as others to receive the care and support of their choice. Staff were aware of the need to ensure fair and equal treatment to all.

Training records showed staff received equality and diversity training as part of their induction. This was designed to help them make sure people were not subjected to discriminatory behaviours and practices. Where staff's spoken levels of English were not of a high standard, the provider had not considered how this might impact on people living with dementia or those with a level of hearing loss for example.

People did not wish to answer this question; however, we understand there are plans in place for people and end of life planning.

Staff said there was information in care plans regarding people’s end of life choices and support.

The care plans we viewed had information in around end of life and what choices had been made.