Bloomsbury Home Care – Essex Mid

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – this means we looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture. This is the first assessment for this newly registered service. This key question has been rated good. This meant the service was consistently managed and well-led. Leaders and the culture they created promoted high-quality, person-centred 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.

Leaders ensured there was a shared vision and strategy which staff in all areas knew, understood and supported. The vision, values and strategic goals of the provider and how individual staff roles helped achieve them were clear. The manager told us, “We are caring, we are responsible and respond to our clients’ needs and wishes. We want to provide the best possible care we can and stand out from other providers.” Managers and staff actively sought the views of people and their relatives through telephone calls, surveys and in home visits. One person told us, “I have a copy of the managers names and numbers, they are very good and easy to get hold of and most importantly they listen.” A member of staff told us, “The service promotes dignity, respect, and person-centred care. The goal is to support people to live independently and safely while ensuring their personal choices are respected. I understand how this applies to my role by always prioritising the well-being of those I support.”

The manager, although new to their role, was clear about their role and focused on setting up a service which provided good outcomes for people and achieving a good reputation. The manager was supported by their operations director who was directly involved and spent time at the service and had the opportunity to spend time with other managers for peer support. The manager was in the process of commencing a higher level management health and social care qualification. Staff were supported by a senior team who covered on-call, so staff always had a senior person to talk to or share any concerns. One member of staff told us, "They [senior team] are well organised. Every time you need support they come and attend.” The manager understood their responsibility under duty of candour to be open and honest and investigate when things go wrong.

The provider fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard. Staff we spoke with told us they were confident their voices would be heard if they had cause to raise any concerns. A member of staff told us, “Freedom to speak up to me is putting my ideas forward and reporting any issues I am facing to our management team to seek support. We are always encouraged to speak in team meetings and staff supervisions and are well listened to.” The operations director told us, “We protect whistle blowers by ensuring all staff feel comfortable to speak up. We gain staff confidence to enable them to share information. We promote honesty to ensure staff report poor practice. Staff are protected under our whistle blowing policy.”

Staff were recruited from a diverse range of people. The manager told us, “We look at the person as an individual, we treat staff fairly and offer the same opportunities to everyone.” The staff we spoke with talked about fairness and transparency within the organisation and how they were all treated the same and listened to equally.

The provider promoted workforce equality, diversity and inclusion. For example, staff recruitment was carried out in line with their policy and good practice in relation to equality and diversity. The manager told us they sought to meet staff needs around their personal circumstances, such as time of at times of religious festivals. Staff told us the provider was flexible with their rota to accommodate their childcare needs.

Staff feedback was positive about the management and support they received to do their job effectively. Staff understood their role and responsibilities. A staff member told us, “The service is well organized, with the latest technology and accessible information, as well as reporting mechanisms to communicate effectively.”

A quality assurance process was in place with effective auditing and overview of quality of the service. This was effective in identifying shortfalls in the service. The manager was supported by the operations director who undertook regular audits to ensure they were compliant with the legal requirements. The operations director and manager worked together collaboratively for effective oversight and management of the service. Improvements were made as a result of concerns and issues raised. These included staff surveys results and safeguarding concerns. Lessons had been learnt and information cascaded to staff. Additional training was made available when required. The senior leadership team had worked collaboratively together to create a collection of simple recipes as guidance for staff to follow when supporting people with their meals at home. This included written and pictorial images of ingredients, what utensils were required and the method for staff to follow. We requested information from partners however, we received no information in response to our request. The manager made statutory notifications when required and safeguarding notifications to the relevant local authorities they worked with.

The provider understood their duty to collaborate and work in partnership, by sharing information and learning with partners to ensure continuous improvements were made to the quality of the service people received. We requested information from partners however, we received no information in response to our request. The service worked alongside hospital discharge teams, district nurses and rapid response teams amongst others, the manager told us, “Our vision to improve as our business grows includes supporting and doing something which would involve the local community."

Staff were encouraged to develop their skills and learning so they can provide the most appropriate care for people using up to date best practice guidelines. Training had been provided by internal managers as well as external trainers. The operations director was also in the process of sourcing external training provided by local health professionals. One member of staff told us, “When things go wrong, we are involved in learning how to improve. For example, if a complaint is made, staff are informed of changes to prevent similar issues in the future.”

The provider had implemented electronic processes for care planning and keeping records of daily care notes and people’s medicines where required. This enabled managers to have access to real time information and live data and audit the documentation quickly and easily. Electronic call monitoring had been introduced whereby staff logged in and out of a person’s home using a bar code scanner. The provider had systems and processes in place to monitor people’s call times. The manager told us, “We analyse information from our electronic systems looking for themes and trends, making sure our systems are user friendly. We welcome feedback from people/staff and relatives to enable us to continually monitor and improve our service.”