Equicare Services Ltd

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• 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

The service was responsive. People were cared for in a way which met their needs and reflected their choices. People's equality and diversity needs were respected and met. We did not assess all the quality statements within this key question. We did not identify concerns relating to the areas which we judged as being met at our last inspection.

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.

The staff knew people they were caring for well and wanted to provide personalised care. They were able to describe people's needs and how they supported them. The registered manager told us people's care was planned to include their preferences and interests. Staff were matched to people who shared similar interests or backgrounds. They told us care professionals were invited to take part in assessments and reviews to help ensure they obtained an holistic picture of people's needs.

People received personalised care which met their needs and reflected their preferences. People and their relatives told us their needs were being met. Their comments included, ''[Person's] needs are being met. [They] go out with staff and staff understand [them]'' and ''Needs and choices are met. Staff give [person] what [they] want.'' People and their relatives were involved in reviewing their care and felt changes were made when needed. Their comments included, ''They are responsive and flexible to change'', ''If I ask for a change they see what they can do'' and ''If something happens they make the necessary changes.'' There were examples of personalised care, where the care agency had worked with people and their families to find out about their individual needs and plan for these. Many of the young people and children using the service were supported with activities outside of their homes. The staff had helped them to access services they had not previously attended, such as college, and also to attend places of worship and outings to places of interest. Reviews about the service included comments from relatives about personalised care. For example, ''The carers at Equicare Services Ltd were invaluable in assisting our family to offer the care and support'' and ''The management have always considered my needs and my child's needs.''

We did not look at Care provision, Integration and continuity during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

The assessments of people's needs considered their communication needs and how these could be met.

People using the service and their relatives were provided with information about the agency and the care they would receive. This included copies of their care plan and guidance about different aspects of the agency.

The registered manager told us they were able to provide information in a range of formats to help people understand about the care they were receiving. They said some people used pictorial cards to help with communication, some staff spoke a range of languages which helped when communicating with people whose first language was not English.

We did not look at Listening to and involving people during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Equity in access during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

The provider's improvement plans included looking at ways to develop care plans which were more easily understood by children.

The registered manager told us, ''Our service is designed to carefully match carers to the clients, which contributes to creating a personal touch and a strong, visible person-centred approach.'' They explained they tried to match carers from the same backgrounds to enable them to understand people's needs. Staff undertook training in equality and diversity and understood how to provide care in a non-judgemental way. They also attended training with the positive behaviour team and at the schools children attended for specific training to understand what techniques the school used when supporting people.

People received good support to meet their diverse needs. People using the service and their families came from a range of different cultural and religious backgrounds. Staff were matched to help understand and meet people's needs. People using the service and their families confirmed staff understood their diversity needs. Their comments included, ''They understand my disability'', ''The carers understand our religious needs when taking [person] out or providing food'', ''The staff respect our cultural needs and faith'' and ''The carers have the same religion as us and understand our culture.'' The staff supported some people to attend places of worship.

We did not look at Planning for the future during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.