Statement of Purpose
 

STANDARD 1 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Purpose of this Document 

This document summarises basic information about Genuine Care Home Care Services for users of our service, people who are considering using our service, and the friends, relatives, carers and representatives of users and potential users. It includes the material required by the Domiciliary Care Agencies Regulations 2002. It should be read in conjunction with our Service User�s Guide.

Our Aims and Objectives 

Genuine Care Home Care Services aims to provide care and support for people who cannot wholly look after themselves. We provide our service in your own home, at times convenient to you, and in ways you find most agreeable. We have sound principles for the way we run our service. Central to these is our belief that the rights of service users are paramount.

Our Principles

1. To focus on service users. We aim to provide personal care and support in ways which have positive outcomes for service users and promote their active participation.

2. To ensure that we are fit for our purpose. We examine our operations constantly to ensure that we are successfully achieving our sated aims and purposes. We welcome feedback from our service users and their friends and relatives.

3. To work for the comprehensive welfare of our service users. We aim to provide for each service users a package of care that contributes to h is or her overall personal and healthcare needs and preferences. We will co-operate with other services and professionals to help to maximize each service user�s independence and to ensure as fully as possible the services user�s maximum participation in the community.

4. To meet assessed needs. Before we provide services, we ensure that a potential service user�s needs and preferences are thoroughly assessed. We aim to ensure that the care the agency provides meets the assessed needs of each service user, that needs are re-assessed as frequently as necessary, and that the care and support provided have the flexibility to respond to changing needs or requirements.

5. To provide quality services. We are whole-heartedly committed to providing top quality services and to continuous improvement in the level of the care we offer.

6. To employ a quality workforce. Standards for our managers and staff are based on the national occupational standards for the care industry set by the National Training Organisation.

Service users� rights 

The aim of good quality domiciliary care must always be to promote a way of life for service users which permits them to enjoy, to the greatest possible extent, their rights as individual human beings. The following rights are fundamental to our agency�s work.

Privacy An individual�s rights to privacy involves being free from intrusion or unwelcome attention. We aim to maximize our service users� privacy in the following ways.

1. Staff will enter a service users� property and rooms within the property only with express consent.

2. A service user has the right not to have to interact with or be interrupted by a worker when, for example, they are entertaining a visitor or are engaged on an intimate activity on their own account.

3. We respect the fact that a service user�s possessions are private and always act in accordance with the principle that our workers are guests.

4. Our staff respect a service user�s right to make telephone calls and carry on conversations without being overheard or observed by a worker.

5. We ensure that records of the service provided are seen only by those with a legitimate need to know the information they contain.

Dignity The right to dignity involves recognising the intrinsic value of people as individuals and the specific nature of each person�s particular needs. We aim to maximise our service users� dignity in the following ways.

1. We arrange for service users who require assistance with bodily tasks such as dressing, bathing and toileting to be helped as far as possible by the care worker of their own choice and, if desired, of the sex of their choice.

2. We ensure if asked that service users receive the necessary assistance with dressing and maintaining their clothes.

3. We will try to provide help for service users with make-up, manicure, hairdressing and other elements of their appearance so that they can present themselves as they would wish.

4. We aim to minimise any feelings of inadequacy, inferiority and vulnerability which service users� may have arising from disability.

5. We treat service users with the sort of respect which reinforces personhood and individual characteristics, addressing them and introducing them to others in their preferred style, responding to specific cultural demands and requirements, and aiming to maintain relationships which are warm and trusting but appropriate to the relationship of worker to service user.

Independence  Independence means having opportunities to think, plan, act and take sensibly calculated risks without continual reference to others. We aim to maximize our service users� independence in the following ways.

1. We help service users to manage for themselves where possible rather than becoming totally dependent on care workers and others.

2. We encourage service users to take as much responsibility as possible for their own healthcare and medication.

3. We involve service users fully in planning their own care, devising and implementing their care plans and managing the records of care.

4. We work with carers, relatives and friends of service users to provide as continuous a service as is feasible.

5. We aim to create a climate in the delivery of care and to foster attitudes in those around a service user which focus on capacities rather than on disabilities.

Security In providing services to people with disabilities, there is a difficult balance to be struck between helping them to experience as much independence as possible and making sure that they are not exposed to unnecessary hazards. Taking care for the security of service users therefore means helping to provide an environment and support structure which offers sensible protection from danger and comfort and readily available assistance when required. This should not be interpreted as a demand for a totally safe or risk-free lifestyle; taking reasonable risks can be interesting, exciting and fun, as well as necessary. We respond to our service users� need for security in the following ways.

1. We try to make sure that help is tactfully at hand when a service user needs or wishes to engage in any activity which places them in situations of substantial risk.

2. We hope to help to create a physical environment which is free from unnecessary sources of danger to vulnerable people or their property.

3. We always carry out thorough risk assessments in relation to premises, equipment and the activities of the service user who is being helped.

4. Our staff will advise service users about situations or activities in which their disability is likely to put them or their property at risk.

5. The staff or our agency are well selected, trained and briefed to provide services responsibly, professionally and with compassion and never to exploit their positions to abuse a service user.

Civil Rights  We aim to help our service users to continue to enjoy their civil rights in the following ways.

1. If service users wish to participate in elections, we will try to access then necessary information and either provide or obtain any assistance which they need to vote.

2. We want to help our service users to make use of as wide a range as possible of public services, such as libraries, education and transport.

3. We will encourage our service users to make full use of health services in always appropriate to their medical, nursing and therapeutic needs.

4. We will provide easy access for our service users and their friends, relatives and representatives to complain about or give feedback on our services.

5. If we can, we will support our service users in their participating as fully and diversely as they wish in the activities of their communities through voluntary work, religious observance, involvement in associations and charitable giving.

Choice  Choice consists of the opportunity to select independently from a range of options. We will respond to our service users� right to choice in the following ways.

1. We avoid a pattern of service delivery which leads to compulsory timings for activities like getting up and going to bed.

2. We will manage and schedule our services so as to respond as far as possible to service users� preferences as regards the staff with whom they feel most comfortable.

3. We respect service users� eccentricities, personal preferences and idiosyncrasies.

4. We hope to cultivate an atmosphere and ethos in our service delivery which welcomes and responds to cultural diversity.

5. We encourage service users to exercise informed choice in their selection of the organization and individuals who provide them with assistance.

Fulfilment Fulfilment has been defined as the opportunity to realiise personal aspirations and abilities. It recognizes and responds to levels of human satisfaction separate from the physical and material, but it is difficult to generalize about fulfillment since it deals with precisely those areas of lifestyle where individuals differ from each other. We respond to service users� right to fulfillment in the following ways.

1. We try to help service users to participate in as broad a range of social and cultural activities as possible.

2. If requested, we will assist a service user to participate in practices associated with religious or spiritual matters and to celebrate meaningful anniversaries and festivals.

3. We aim to respond sensitively and appropriately to the special needs and wishes of service users who wish to prepare or are close to death.

4. We make particular efforts to understand and respond to the wish of any service user to participate in minority-interest events or activities.

5. We will do everything possible to help a service user who wants to achieve an unfulfilled task, wish or ambition before the end of their life.

 Diversity  Britain�s social care services are used by people from a wide diversity of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Services therefore need to be accessible. We need to make particular efforts to reach out to vulnerable people who might have been deterred from approaching agencies which appear not to relate to their special needs and aspirations, and to demonstrate that we welcome and celebrate the wide range of people in the community generally and among the users of services in particular. We respond to service users� right to express their diversity in the following ways.

• Positively communicating to our service users that their diverse backgrounds enhance the life of the community.

• Respecting the ethnic, cultural and religious practices of service users.

• Outlawing negatively discriminatory behaviour by staff and others.

• Accommodating individual differences without censure.

• Helping service users to celebrate events, anniversaries and festivals which are important to them.

The Services the Organisation Provides 

List of services users the agency accepts: 

Older people

People with physical disabilities

People with sensory loss, including those with dual sensory impairment

People with mental health problems

People with learning disabilities

Children and their families

Personal or family carers. 

Registered provider

Genuine Care Home Care Services

Registered manager

Kathy Maslen
 

The organisation�s care workers 

We recognize that for most service users the most important people in our organization are the care and support workers with whom service users will have regular contact. We take great care in recruiting, training and supervising our staff.

Complaints and Compliments 

Genuine Care Home Care Services welcomes feedback on its services, especially from service users and their carers, whether these are compliments, complaints or suggestions for ways of doing things better.

Service users should feel free to let the care workers working with them have any comments they wish to make.

If they prefer to take up the matter with someone else in the organization or if they feel that a point that they have made is not being taken seriously or acted on, they can ask to be put in touch with a manager.

If a service user wishes their dissatisfaction to be dealt with more formally they should take the steps outlined in the attached complaints procedure.

If anyone feels that Genuine Care Home Care Services has not dealt with a complaint to their satisfaction, they have the right to complain to the Commission for Social Care Inspection, which regulates our service.

Revisions of this Document 

Genuine Care Home Care Services reviews all of its policy documents from time to time. We welcome any comments on the contents of this Statement of Purpose.

Signed: Kathy Maslen