Helping Hands Northallerton

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

Caring – this means we looked for evidence that the service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. This is the first inspection for this service. This key question has been rated good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 75 (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 always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. People told us they were supported by caring staff. Comments included, “The staff are really good. The carers are respectful”, “They are very good and kind. They are a nice lot of [staff]. I can talk to them, and they are also company for me”, “Absolutely fine, very respectful. I’d give them 10/10” and “Staff are respectful, caring and talkative.”

The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. People’s individual needs were assessed, understood and met by the service. People's support needs were tailored to ensure their personal preferences and wishes were met. Information about people's life history, what was important to them, and their hobbies and interests were recorded. Staff had recently been asked to share a photograph and profile of themselves to reciprocate this sharing of information. One person told us, “The carers come once a week, different people but that’s fine. I ask for a female carer and that’s what I get.”

The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. People were informed about their rights and had choice and control over their support. For example, care plans told staff about people who could describe how they wished staff to do certain things. A staff member explained how they delivered care by, “Showing people what we can do and giving them options and show them what we can cover when they do need more help.”

The service listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff respond to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress. People's needs, views and wishes were listened to, recorded and used to ensure their care was person centred. Staff completed notification forms to inform the service when people's needs had changed, or when the support they provided differed from that recorded in support plans. This ensured people's immediate needs were responded to appropriately. A staff member told us they, “Sit and talk to them (people)” to find out how they wished to be supported.

The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. Staff were provided with care and support to meet their well-being needs. The registered manager said they provide positive feedback to staff and recognise their importance by sending them thank you cards and inspirational quotes. For example, one staff member had resigned but because the registered manager knew them well, they had discussed the reason for the resignation and provided the support and encouragement for the staff member to stay with the service. A staff member told us, “There’s always someone there if you need to speak to management and through on call.”