What makes this Notts home care agency 'outstanding' as inspectors praise staff

'We want to treat our clients like they are our family members, like they are our loved ones'

The director of an 'outstanding' Nottinghamshire home care agency says they want to treat "people like their family" as inspectors heaped praise on staff.

Respectful Care is a private home care service providing personal care to adults with personal care needs.

The care agency employs around 50 staff and looks after around 110 clients across north Nottingham.

It was rated 'outstanding' for the first time by the Care Quality Commission in May.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care and the CQC only inspects where people receive personal care where the company has around 66 clients.

This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating.

Details in the CQC report, after inspectors visited in February, said: "People were cared for by staff who were kind, caring, empathetic and compassionate.

"They regularly exceeded expectations providing people with an exceptionally caring service.

"There was an excellent awareness of equality and diversity legislation and this was implemented across the provider’s service supporting people and the staff who cared for them.

"Staff worked hard to ensure people led fulfilling lives, with many occasions going above and beyond expectations to help them achieve their goals.

"Innovative methods have been used to include people in the planning of their care and support."

The inspectors found that people were provided with a wide range of methods to assist them with making decisions about their lives.

The service was rated 'outstanding' for how caring, well-led and responsive it is and 'good' for how safe and effective the service is.

"People told us staff always acted on their views and people felt fully involved with all decisions about their care," the report added.

"People and staff had formed meaningful and respectful relationships and people praised the consistently sensitive and caring approach of staff during personal care.

"Independent advocates had been used to support people with making decisions. This helped ensure people did not experience discrimination. People’s diverse needs were considered when care and support was planned for them."

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Responding to the report, managing director Karl Overton, told Nottinghamshire Live: "We are absolutely delighted.

"We've been working towards this for many years. It's rare for companies to get this accolade, so we're really proud.

"I'd like to put it down to the hard work and dedication of the team. We have a strict recruitment process so we are getting the best people in.

"We want to treat our clients like they are our family members, like they are our loved ones."

Karl added that coronavirus had been a "significant challenge" to how the service operates but that said staff have been taken the correct advice and guidance from Public Health England, the Government and councils to be able to properly look after clients safely.

"We still have an incredibly important job to do, now so more than ever," he added.