Archived: Home Support Network (Gravesend)

People's needs were assessed and care and treatment was planned and delivered in line with their individual care plan. We looked at five care plans for people who used the service and we visited three people who used the service in their own homes.

People who used the service told us that they were happy with the support they received from staff; one said 'My care workers are very good to me, they give me lots of choices.' Others said 'The staff were alright' and 'My care workers are friendly, they arrive on time and I choose my own food and keep my own room tidy.'

We saw that staff training included but was not limited to health and safety, manual handling, first aid and common induction standards for care staff. One member of staff said that 'My training has been good and it is up to date'. ' Another said, 'I received an induction followed by on-going training'. All four of the staff we talked with spoke positively about their training and the support they received from their managers. We saw that specialised training was provided, for example for diabetes and dementia.

People were cared for by staff who were supported to deliver care and treatment safely and to an appropriate standard.

We found that the provider had a system in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received.

Two people who used the service told us that they always felt very safe when staff attended their homes. One service user told us that staff always identified themselves and they always wore their identification badges.

There were systems in place to ensure that only staff who were suitable to work with vulnerable people had been employed.

The provider has systems in place to monitor the quality of the service, this is carried out through observational supervision of staff working with people in their own homes, formal supervision, review meetings and through complaints and compliments. The quality assurance questionnaires for user feedback requires improvement in order to follow up on experiences and to be made avaliable in an easy-to-read format.