Goose Green HomeCare A to Z

 

 

In the event of any accident or incident that occurs within your home we are required to keep a record of this by law. This allows us to assess levels of risk to you or to the staff attending you and requires us to endeavour to reduce these risks to the lowest possible level. It also means we have a written record of what has occurred and any action taken by our staff in response to any injury or assessed risk. 

We train our staff to be able to support you appropriately in the event of any accident or dangerous occurrence and you can be confident they are able to intervene to promote your safety and welfare.

Our staff will explain to you every step of the way what they are required to do and ensure they have your full agreement and consent at all times.

It is our policy that the carer must contact the care manager immediately for advice and guidance, as well as making them aware of what has occurred. 

If the accident/incident takes place out with office hours, the carer must advise the on call manager.

If the carer has assessed that your injury requires immediate attention by the emergency services they will phone 999 immediately and will clearly advise you of their actions.

If the carer assesses that you require to be seen by a doctor they again will discuss this course of action with you and inform the doctor, with your consent.

It is also our policy to advise your next of kin if you have been involved in an accident or incident that has required some intervention by us. This would again be agreed with you prior to the carer doing so.

The carer will then fill in an Accident/Incident form, which records what happened and what action they took and submit this to the office.

All our employees have an annual appraisal or their work performance with a Care Manager.

In addition to this your Care Co-ordinator will also complete two unannounced observations of work practice for every carer who works with you.

Any comments you or your family make about individual carers work performance will also be kept on their personnel record and will be taken into account as part of our staff appraisal system.

This allows us to monitor the quality of our employees work performance.

We actively encourage clients to communicate their comments to us regarding the service delivered by members of our care team and your comments will always be gratefully received, whether they are positive or negative!

 

We ask you to give us as much notice as possible for cancellations of care visits. We require at least 24 hours notice to allow us time to cancel our staff. If you have not cancelled the service and our employee arrives at your home in good faith, prepared to do your visit, then a full change will be made.

We have 2 Care Managers who are based in the Elvingston office. The Care Managers are responsible for recruitment, training and management of the care team. They liaise closely with clients, social workers and other health care professionals. You can speak with the Care Managers at any time regarding any aspect of your care.

 

There is a Care Co-ordinator for each geographical area we cover and you will come to know them well. They are responsible for agreeing your initial plan of care with you and will meet with you regularly to discuss any problems/concerns you might have, give general advice and guidance. They will liaise with other health care professionals as required to ensure you receive the assistance and have all the equipment and services you require to promote your health and well-being.  Their contact number is clearly detailed in your care plan.

If you should wish to make a complaint then your care co-ordinator will discuss this with you and pass your complaint on to the relevant people. They will also give you feedback to advise you what action has been taken to deal with your concern.

Your senior carer, who will also work closely with you, reports to the care co-ordinator, who in turn reports to the Care Managers.

 

 

It is our policy to have a Care Plans in every client’s house; for both care work and home help.

This is your personal plan for delivery of your service and will be agreed with you at the start of your care or home help programme.

The care plan gives the staff important information like who they need to contact in an emergency, other professionals involved in your care, like your district nurse and GP’s name, along with information on your personal needs and preferences.

Your care co-ordinator and senior carer will support you with the preparation of your personal plan and they will review this with you regularly to ensure the plan is meeting your personal needs and requirements.

Information recorded in your plan is with your agreement, knowledge and consent and you can read it at any time. You can request for information to be removed from your plan if you feel you do not wish to share this with the full care team and that the information is not pertinent or necessary for safe delivery of your care service.

You can request a review of your personal plan at any time by contacting your senior carer, whose name will be clearly recorded in your care plan.

The care or home help staff will complete an entry in the care plan every visit that they make to you, detailing what they have supported you with during their visit and recording their arrival and departure times.

Your care plan is confidential and while all care staff attending you have to use this to implement your care appropriately, they may not discuss any information from your plan with anyone without gaining your consent.

Your care plan will remain in your house and your care co-ordinator or senior carer will agree with you where you would like this to be stored within your home.

Your care co-ordinator will meet with you approximately twice a year to complete a Client Satisfaction Survey. This does not take long and involves your care co-ordinator sitting down with you and asking you some questions regarding the quality of our service. It is also a further opportunity for you to discuss any improvements you feel we could make to your service as we are always looking for ways to enhance our performance.

 

 

Comments, suggestion and complaints are encouraged from clients, their families, friends, advocates and our own staff. It is only by recognising where we go wrong that we can address this and improve our work practices and the quality of our service. Complaints can be referred to your Care Co-ordinator or to the Care Managers, who will take your complaint forward and inform you fully of the procedure to follow.

 

A copy of our Complaints policy can be found here

 

Alternatively, we sincerely hope that you will also have occasion to compliment staff and again this information can be referred to your Senior Carer, your Care Co-ordinator or the Care Managers. We are delighted to be able to record your comments onto individual staff member’s personnel records, with your permission, or to nominate them for the employee of the month award if appropriate!

 

 

Confidentiality:

We understand that your privacy is of the utmost importance to you and we respect that. Goose Green has a Confidentiality Policy for its staff to follow, as well as expecting them to adhere to the requirements of the Scottish Social ServicesCouncil’s Code of Conduct. This ensures that our staff will respect that any information they receive about you in the line of their work must remain confidential and they will not share this information with anyone else without your permission. The only exception to this rule would be in an emergency situation when it might be necessary to share information about your health with a doctor or call an ambulance for example, where there is a clear risk to your health & safety or that of others within your environment. You will always be informed clearly of the reason for the disclosure of any personal information along with who the information has been shared with.

 

 

 

  

You will receive a contract from Goose Green Homecare following the commencement of our service. You are requested to sign this and return it to the office in the stamp addressed envelope provided.

You will also receive at the same time an information pack about the agency and a clear indication of our charges (if you are funding the service yourself).

We also enclose a copy of our last Care Commission Inspection Report and a set of National Care Standards. 

We complete an Enhanced Disclosure Scotland check for all our employees.

This is a police check to establish that the employee has no previous criminal record, which would render them unfit to be appointed to a position of trust as a care worker.

We also interview staff for suitability and obtain two satisfactory references prior to appointment. 

When the office is closed we provide an emergency on call service. 

The On Call Service operates from 4.30pm-11pm Mon-Thurs, from 4pm-11pm on a Friday and from 7am-11pm all week-end when the office is closed.

 

We take nominations from staff and clients every month of staff members who have been particularly supportive or helpful in some way. This is an opportunity for us to promote good practice and to reward staff who have ‘gone the extra mile’! Please feel free to nominate any member of our staff at any time!

At the end of the month we select the most deserving nominee and they are announced in our Staff Newsletter. The carer will then wear a badge for the year to show they have achieved this accolade and they also receive a small financial incentive.

If you require any support with your financial arrangements, like paying of bills or collection of pensions then a financial risk assessment will have to be completed by your Care Co-ordinator. This will identify what support you require, who will do this for you and you will be asked to sign that you are happy with the management measures agreed. We have a financial transaction form that the carer or home help is required to complete for small items of shopping (up to £10) but for shopping over the value of £10 or for payment of bills or pension collection a cash book will be provided for the carer to complete a record of the transaction, along with the date and time and you will be asked to sign this to agree the transaction is accurate. The carer or home help will keep the top copy of this for their records and this will be submitted to the office and kept on your confidential file. The carbon copy will remain in your cash book in your care plan.

These measures are in place to protect both you and the staff from any financial mismanagement.

Lending money to staff members is strictly prohibited and any staff member soliciting or accepting such loans will be disciplined.

Borrowing money from staff is also against our policy and staff are not permitted to enter into such arrangements with clients. This again would be viewed as a disciplinary offence. 

It is our policy that our staff should not solicit or accept gifts from clients or their families or friends, whether in cash or kind. If you wish to give a member of staff a small gift we would ask you to contact the Care Manager to discuss this, to prevent any embarrassment to yourselves or care or home help staff. 

 

We provide gloves and plastic aprons for the care staff. It is mandatory to wear these for all personal care tasks to prevent any spread of infection. We also provide anti-bacterial alcohol hand gel for infection control. 

This is to protect you from any potential source of infection, as well as to protect the care staff and other clients. 

Goose Green HomeCare accepts the legal obligations placed on them as employers by the Health and Safety @ Work Act 1974 and the Health @ Safety Regulations 1992. This means we have a responsibility to work in a safe manner, which promotes the health & safety of our staff, our clients and also anyone our staff come in contact with in the line of their work.

We therefore, have to do regular risk assessments. Some of these assessments could be based on equipment or fixtures and fittings within your house – for example a faulty electrical appliance could be a risk to the worker that uses it or yourself if you attempt to use it! We would have to highlight our concerns and discuss with you or your family how this appliance could be fixed and made safe or replaced.

Another area of risk assessment takes place when you are discussing your plan of care with your care co-ordinator.

An identified risk to your personal safety might be your inability to secure and lock your door safely. Your care co-ordinator or senior carer would discuss ways to minimise the risks to you and you would work together to agree a solution. This would be recorded on a risk assessment form and this would be located in your care plan. You would be asked to sign the risk assessment and give your consent to any proposed management of risk. If you have declined to take our advice and wish to take that risk in your day to day life then this will also be recorded and signed by you or your advocate.

We require our staff to identify any risks to health & safety and report these immediately to the Care Manager or the on call manager so immediate action can be taken to reduce or remove the risks. 

All our staff complete an Induction training programme on commencement of employment.

This consists of; an induction session in the office with the care manager and then induction shifts with experienced carers within the community.

You may experience one of your regular carers bringing a new carer with them to introduce them to you and to learn about your care requirements. We ask for your co-operation in this as it allows the new carer to become familiar with your needs of the service. 

If we are providing staff for companionship or to support you with shopping needs it is often desirable that the carer or home help takes you out in their car. We require staff that are supporting you with this to have business insurance for their car in case of accident or injury.

Unfortunately, employees who do not have business insurance are unable to take clients out in their own car. 

It is not our policy to hold keys. If you are unable to give staff access to your house, we will request that a key safe is fitted. This is a coded device which keeps your house key safe and ensures only people with the right to enter gain access to your home. The code number will be agreed with you and the code is given to staff on a need to know basis in encrypted form to promote your safety and security.

 

Payments

Our accounts are sent out monthly by post on the first Monday of every month.

Our preferred method of payment is by cheque; alternatively you can pay by cash at either the Elvingston or the Gullane offices.

If you wish to arrange another method of payment then please do not hesitate to contact Mr Oivind Aas on 01875 408 167 to discuss further options. 

Our staff will be happy to support you with feeding and exercising your pet if you require this. Obviously we would hope that your pet will be well behaved and not put our staff at risk! If your pet is unsafe to be around other people then we would ask that you keep them in another room until our staff have been able to meet your needs. We would also ask that from a health and safety perspective that your pets will be regularly inoculated, as well as being regularly treated to prevent worms or fleas!

If you require support with your pets then we would happily discuss our policy on this with you. 

Reviews of your care programme will be held regularly with your care co-ordinator or senior carer.

Your care co-ordinator completes your plan of care with you at the start or prior to the start of our service. You will then be supported by your allocated senior carer, who will meet with you every three months or as required to review your care needs. This gives you the opportunity to raise any concerns you have and to work with the care staff to alter your plan of care to suit your needs and preferences.

Your care co-ordinator or senior carer will complete a record of your review meeting, which they will retain as evidence that you are working together to ensure your care meets your requirements. There will also be a record kept within your plan of care. 

Each week the carers receive a Newsletter and Minutes of the care team meeting for your area.

These minutes will contain information about aspects of your care programme, requests you have made or changes to your plan of care that have been discussed at the meeting. The information will be shared with the rest of the care team via this document to ensure everyone is aware of your needs and preferences and that you receive the best care possible from our care staff.

All staff are aware of the confidentiality of this document and it is safely disposed of after use, to preserve your confidentiality. Highly sensitive or confidential information you have not consented to share will not be divulged through the Care Minutes. 

Staff are not permitted to smoke inside the agency’s buildings or client’s homes.

Due to the Smoking, Health & Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005 we are required to protect our employees from the effects of exposure to second-hand smoke. We therefore have to request that all clients who are smokers consider the health of our staff and cease smoking during their visit. We do advise our staff to ask you politely to support them by stopping smoking for the short time you are being attended to by them. It would be much appreciated if you would co-operate with us on this matter as employees are within their rights to refuse to attend clients who do not comply with this request. 

All staff receive training to enable them to deliver the highest quality of care service to you. We make training compulsory for all staff who receive training in manual handling, health & safety, infection control, catheter care, continence care, prevention of abuse, promoting communication, safe handling of medication, promotion of client rights, first aid, food hygiene, promoting nutrition to name but a few! Our aim is to ensure that all care staff are competent and confident in every area of your care delivery. 

We also use our senior carers, care co-ordinators and experienced carer staff to support new carers, who may be inexperienced. You can always feel confident in the care staff’s ability to deliver your care programme safely. 

Your care worker or home help should be easily recognisable as a Goose Green Employee. This means they must wear full Goose Green HomeCare uniform at all times while working for the Agency, as described below:  

 

 

·        Name badge

·        Identification badge with photograph

·        Blue and white piped stripe tunic or dress for females or

·        Blue Tunic for Males

·        Navy blue trousers

·        Navy blue fleece with Goose Green Logo

 

 

·        Name badge

·        Identification badge with photograph

·        Aqua and white piped stripe tunic

·        Navy blue trousers

·        Dark Green or Navy fleece with Goose Green Logo 

You will receive a list of your visits for the coming week, detailing the names of your carer or home help and also telling you the visit times. This is posted out on a Thursday and should be with you on the Friday or Saturday morning.

If there has had to be an alteration to your visit list then you will be informed by telephone of any time change or change of care worker or home help.