Atlas Care Services Ltd Lincolnshire

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

Responsive – this means we looked for evidence that the provider met people’s needs.

This is the first assessment for this newly registered service. This key question has been rated Good. This meant people’s needs were met through good organisation and delivery.

People were provided with person centred care from a staff group who knew them well and were responsive to their needs.

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.

Other than the feedback we received about call timings, people and their relatives were positive about how staff worked to provide them with person centred care. Their care plans had personalised information and people’s care task lists showed how they wanted their care to be given. People were very positive about the staff who came into their homes and many people had got to know their care staff well. One person said, “(Staff member) is old school and does everything I want in the way I want it done.” Another person reinforced this by telling us they had a regular carer who came in to support them and was “fantastic.” They said the staff member knew them very well and everything was done the way they wanted it. People felt staff listened to them.

Staff told us people’s care plans were written in conjunction with people and where needed their relatives. One staff member told us if people’s needs changed they would feed this back to the managers so people could be reassessed to ensure they were receiving the right care. The staff member went on to say, “It’s all about the individual, what is right for them and how they want things done.” One member of staff told us they felt they were able to keep up to date with any changes in people’s care via the care plans and daily notes so they always got personalised care. They said, “I have been off over the weekend I read the care plans last night, so I know what I am doing for people today. We get changes from the care coordinator via the app and text.”

The registered manager and the operational manager worked closely with the local authority contracting team and had developed a good working relationship with them. They had, as mentioned earlier in this report, worked with the local authority on the trusted assessor role. There were different aspects to this role. One aspect was when a person in their care needed a review of care. The assessor would assess and feedback to the local authority if a person’s care package needed increasing or decreasing, whether a person needed a change in care provision such as an admission to a care home or whether social worker input was needed for a person. This scheme was undertaken as a pilot and has been adopted in three areas of Lincolnshire. This work has prompted Atlas to modify their own care plan template for when they take on a client so this can be shared more easily and support the trusted assessor when they undertake the work for the council. The operational manager told us this work was also had independent reviews by the local authority lead practitioner to ensure it was a consistent standard. This initiative enhanced people’s care provision and continuity.

People told us they were provided with information from the service on how to contact them about their care. When we visited people in their homes we saw in their care records there was a complaints policy to help them should they wish to complain about the service. People told us the staff who came to their homes and the staff they spoke with in the office were responsive to any concerns or issues they had.

As mentioned above, people and relatives were involved with the assessment of their needs and how they wanted to receive their care. People knew how to get in touch with the management team at the office and felt they listened to them.

Where needed staff supported people to contact relevant health professionals. One person told us of how when they had contacted their GP for a health complaint they were asked to send in a photograph of the problem. They told us their care worker did all of this for them and they were able to get the treatment they needed for their complaint in a timely way.

The staff at the service worked with people and their relatives to ensure where people needed support from specialist health professionals they were provided with this. The service supported some people with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. The registered manager was able to give an example of how they had supported one person who needed specialist support. They had a dedicated field supervisor who helped the person with access to health professionals and the local council. They also accompanied the person to appointments and support groups to ensure the person got the help and support they needed.

People had the opportunity to plan their end-of-life care wishes with their family and staff at the service. We saw care plans which had very personalised information in them on how people wanted their care. There was good information on the different health professionals the staff worked with to ensure people’s care met their needs at this sensitive time.