Here at Centred we’re delighted the Care Inspectorate have praised our housing support service which operates throughout the Scottish Highlands.
The service runs in Inverness-shire, Lochaber, Easter Ross and Caithness and was rated ‘good’ or ‘very good’ in all four areas evaluated.
Centred provides a combined housing support and care at home service for people in their own homes or in their community.
The Care Inspectorate carried out an unannounced inspection in January.
Using a six-point scale to evaluate quality, where 1 is unsatisfactory and 6 is excellent, the service scored 5 (very good) for both the strength of the staff team and our support for people’s wellbeing.
It also scored 4 (good) for our leadership and planning of care and support.
Key messages from the report include the service was person-centred, people benefited from the support and staff members were positive and motivated.
The report says there were major strengths in the service’s care and support with very few areas to improve in.
“There were many examples of positive outcomes for people as a result of the service’s support”, the report says.
“This included people doing more in their community, gaining confidence in themselves, managing at home better and generally enjoying the visits and support of the staff members.
“Staff members were responsive to people’s health and care needs. They were very good at identifying if someone was not as well as usual or needed extra support for some other reason.”
The report says there were a number of examples of the service working well with other agencies which helped people to maintain good health and wellbeing.
It added: “The service got the balance of supporting a person and respecting their independence and abilities right.”
“Staff understood health and social care values. Challenges people may experience due to ill health or mental health conditions were understood. People’s rights and independence were promoted.
“Staffing arrangements were well organised and reflected people’s assessed needs and their wishes.”
Staff were seen to be suitable for the people they supported, the report says.
“Careful thought went into ensuring people were supported well. People were happy with the staff members and benefitted from their support.
“Staff had good morale and were motivated. They worked as a team and would be flexible when providing support if needed.
“Staff reported that they understood their role, had been given suitable training and that communication with service was very good.”
The report also says “The management team as a group and individually were in touch with what was going on in the service and for people.
“Communication within the service was positive and encouraged. People can trust that management focus on how well the service is providing support to them.
“People and staff said that the management and office team were easy to contact, approachable and willing to listen.
“Management knew the importance of listening and being open to other’s ideas, concerns and feedback.
“People and staff trusted and had confidence in the management team.”
The report also said support plans for people were detailed and informative about a person’s wishes and needs.
They provided good guidance for staff, assisting them to get to know a person and how to provide support in a way that suited the person.
At Centred we have already carried out improvements, or have plans in place, as a result of recommendations in the report to make the service even better.
Our Head of Operations June Jeffrey said: “I am delighted with the latest inspection report for Centred’s Housing Support Service which is a testament to our hard working and dedicated teams who go above and beyond to support people in some of the most rural areas across the Highlands.
“Our recovery approach to mental health and wellbeing challenges are central to our service and it’s fantastic to read the positivity throughout the report praising how good our staff are and how well we support each individual’s wellbeing.”
In addition to housing support and care at home, we also offers private care packages. For more information about Centred’s services visit centred.scot.
- View and download our full inspection report
- Get in touch with our Support Services for an informal discussion. We’re here to help.