Hamelin Trust Community Support Service was rated Good across all five key questions at the May 2018 inspection, maintaining its previous overall rating. The well-led domain improved from Requires Improvement, with strengthened quality monitoring, though consent documentation for children versus adults and the structure of internal audits required further attention.
Concerns (3)
moderate
Consent / capacity
: “care plans did not always distinguish between the different legal responsibilities when caring for children, young adults and adults.”
minorCare planning: “Care plans in the U Matter 2 side of the service, did not provide sufficiently detailed information and guidance about people's needs.”
minorGovernance: “the internal audits were also a good quality; they were not carried out in a structured way.”
Strengths
· Consistent, well-matched staff teams fostered strong relationships with people and families, with families citing up to 4 years of continuity with the same carer.
· Highly personalised, flexible care plans that reflected individual needs, preferences, religion and communication styles.
· Effective risk management with practical, common-sense solutions that avoided unnecessary restriction.
· Strong staff training and supervision, including specialist training in epilepsy, dementia and palliative care.
· Improved quality monitoring including an independent external consultant conducting audits.
Hamelin Trust Community Support Service was rated Good overall, with strong person-centred care, well-trained and compassionate staff, and effective safeguarding practices. The Well-led domain was rated Requires Improvement due to inconsistent communication with families about staffing changes and governance audits that had not yet been fully embedded.
Concerns (3)
moderateCommunication with families: “The only issue is that there is a lot of swapping of staff, often the office don't tell us in advance and we only hear on the day itself which can be traumatic for [person].”
moderateGovernance: “targeted and robust audits had not been consistently carried out within the community services section.”
moderateLeadership: “there had been a number of changes in leadership which had impacted on the overall organisation of the service.”
Strengths
· Staff knew people well, treated them with kindness, dignity and respect, and promoted independence and choice.
· Robust safeguarding training was in place, including for trustees, and a quarterly safeguarding group reviewed and made decisions to keep people safe.
· Staff received regular one-to-one supervision every four to six weeks with constructive feedback and development opportunities.
· Personalised, detailed care plans including 'This book is about me' sections with photos made plans accessible to people.
· Service was flexible and responsive to changes, including family emergencies, and advocated for people facing discrimination at leisure venues.