Background to this inspection
Updated
20 January 2022
Gray Healthcare provides home based rehabilitation and recovery focused support for adults of working age with severe and enduring mental health needs, autistic spectrum disorder, learning disability, or an acquired brain injury, who may have additionally complex health care needs, which increases their vulnerability. They provide the regulated activity of treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The service has a registered manager who was registered on 18 December 2018. At our last inspection in 2019 the service was rated as good overall.
Gray Healthcare provides home based rehabilitation services for client’s living in their own homes. Care and support are delivered in several geographically dispersed locations across England and managed from a central office in Liverpool. Clients also accessed the provider’s head office to participate in feedback sessions about the service, support value-based interviews of staff and support induction training for staff who would support their care. This was Gray Healthcare’s second inspection as an independent community mental health service.
We are improving how we hear people’s experience and views on services, when they have limited verbal communication. We have trained some CQC team members to use a symbol-based communication tool. We checked that this was a suitable communication method and that people were happy to use it with us. We did this by reading their care and communication plans and speaking to staff or relatives and the person themselves. In this report, we used this communication tool with one person to tell us their experience.
What people who use the service say
We spoke with six clients during the inspection. Clients felt the service exceeded their expectations in terms of support from staff and finding them a suitable home. Clients told us their homes were safe and clean. Clients spoke highly of the service and felt their care was flexible to support their chosen lifestyle. Clients highlighted how positive, caring, compassionate and supportive the staff were and were involved in how they were supported.
Updated
20 January 2022
Gray Healthcare provides home based rehabilitation and recovery focused support for adults of working age with severe and enduring mental health needs, autistic spectrum disorder, learning disability, or an acquired brain injury, who may have additionally complex health care needs, which increases their vulnerability.
Our rating of this location stayed the same. We rated it as good because:
The service made sure client’s homes were safe and clean. The service had enough staff. Staff assessed and managed risk well and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
Staff developed person centred, recovery-oriented care plans which focused on the whole picture of clients’ needs. They provided a range of treatments suitable to clients’ needs and in line with national guidance about best practice. Staff engaged in clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided. For example, health care monitoring of clients with long term health conditions and regular reviewing of positive behaviour support plans with clients and their families, This helped clients and their families to work with the provider support and clinical staff to discuss what was working well for the client and identify areas for growth and development.
The teams included or had access to the full range of specialists required to meet the needs of clients in their care. Managers made sure staff received training, supervision and appraisal. Staff worked well together as a bigger team and with relevant services outside the organisation.
Staff treated clients with compassion and kindness and understood their individual needs. They actively involved clients in decisions and care planning. Clients were truly respected and valued as individuals and were empowered as partners in their care, practically and emotionally, by an exceptionally caring service. Clients told us the service exceeded their expectations in terms of support from staff and finding them a suitable home. For example, involving clients in choosing their homes, furniture and decor and client’s able to have pets of their own and care for them.
Relationships between people who use the service, those close to them and staff were strong, caring, respectful and supportive. These relationships were highly valued by staff and promoted by leaders.
Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual clients and were delivered in a way to ensure flexibility, choice and continuity of care. For example, agreeing when clients would have unsupported hour from staff or when visiting families, and staff remained on call to support clients if needed.
Discharge from the service was well planned and coordinated with commissioners and other services so clients had alternative access to services whose needs it could not meet.
The service was well led with thorough leadership strategies in place to make sure a positive culture was developed. Objectives and plans were challenging and innovative, while remaining achievable.
The leadership team had a shared purpose and worked hard to deliver and motivate staff to succeed. Staff were proud of the organisation as a place to work and spoke highly of the culture.
The governance processes were proactively reviewed to make sure that its procedures ran smoothly.