Happy at Home Community Care Services Ltd.

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. At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment, the rating has changed to 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 64 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We did not look at Shared direction and culture during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Well-led.

The service had inclusive leaders who understood the context in which they delivered care, treatment and support and embodied the culture and values of their workforce and organisation. Leaders had the skills, knowledge and experience to lead effectively. Feedback from staff included “I believe they (managers) have the skills, knowledge and experience to lead well. The management operates with openness and honesty as they always let us know if there are any concerns that we need to know (about).” Other staff said, “We all are treated equally and this is what I like about this company.” Another member of staff said they were “Treated fairly and they (managers) lead with openness, transparency and supportive work environment.”

The provider told us they had established open communication channels for staff through anonymous feedback tools, regular on-line meetings and an open door policy with leadership, to voice any concerns and suggestions. There was a whistleblowing policy which encouraged staff to report any concerns. The staff handbook also reminded staff of their obligation to report any wrongdoing. Staff said they would feel confident in raising any concerns or suggestions with managers. One person told us “Staff are treated fairly and equally. If we have concerns, the management is always willing to spare time and listen to us.” Another member of staff said “I feel confident giving my concern to management. They listen and follow up in action.”

The provider told us about various initiatives they had introduced in the past year. This included mandatory diversity and inclusion training for all staff, which covered unconscious bias, cultural competence and the importance of diversity in the workplace. Recruitment processes had been revised to promote diversity through use of tools such as inclusive job descriptions, implementing blind recruitment techniques and actively seeking candidates from underrepresented groups. The provider said the workforce had become more diverse and reflected a wider range of backgrounds and perspectives. Flexible working practices had been introduced, to offer staff improved work-life balance and to attract and retain staff. The provider told us they had introduced mentorship and career progression programmes for staff. This increased access to opportunities for staff to advance in their careers and provide support to staff from underrepresented groups. Workplace diversity had been celebrated through events such as recognising cultural holidays and holding diversity workshops. The provider told us these events had increased awareness and appreciation of different cultures and strengthened team cohesion and morale.

There were processes for monitoring the quality of people’s care. The provider sent out surveys to people to ask for feedback about their care. A sample of 31 recent surveys showed people would recommend the service to someone else. Eighteen people described the quality of their care as ‘excellent’, 11 said it was ‘good’ and 2 said ‘quite good.’ Responses to staff surveys sent out by the provider showed they felt supported through supervision, training and managers. They also said they felt supported with personal issues. The provider had ensured we had consistently been notified of all events they were required to tell us about. The service had a business continuity plan in place, in the event of occurrences such as power failures, adverse weather and IT failure. Some of the care records and procedural guidance needed improvement to ensure these provided clear information for staff, were up to date with good practice and that they were always written using respectful language.

The provider worked in partnership with other agencies and shared information with them. We saw examples of where the provider had referred people to agencies, such as occupational therapy and district nursing services. A community professional told us “All my dealings with Happy at Home have been to the highest standard. They are very good at communicating, they’re responsive and knowledgeable and they do their utmost to maintain positive relationships with people.” They added “I have never experienced anything but positive interactions with Happy at Home Community Care.”

The provider gave an example of learning from an incident and improving the service. A tracker sheet had been put in place where people had pressure wounds, so these could be monitored. They told us a spreadsheet had been set up to log staff supervision, spot checks and appraisals. We were not provided with further examples to demonstrate a focus on quality of people’s care or on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation. This is an area for improvement.