Frequently asked questions
Please find some of your most commonly asked questions below:
Q: What should I look for when I am selecting a homecare provider for myself/ a loved one?
This is really a personal matter and depends on your judgement of the people you meet and how helpful they have been in addition to background checks you make. What we would suggest is that it may be helpful to take account of the following considerations:
- What does their latest CQC inspection report say about their services?
- Have they had a reasonable amount of experience in your local area?
- How long have they been operating in your area?
- Were the staff helpful and efficient when they spoke to you?
- Were they willing to meet with you or your loved one in person swiftly to discuss your needs and goals for your care?
- When you met did they listen and demonstrate they clearly understood what outcomes you wanted to achieve from your care?
- Was the information they provided clear and helpful to you?
Q: What experience do you have in my local area?
We have been providing homecare in Kent since 2002. We devote our services only to Kent and as a family owned and operated business we have had roots in Kent from childhood.
We were awarded a contract with Kent County Council to provide homecare in 2004 for a five year period and this has been extended and is current.
In addition we are one of 5 "Gold band" providers to Medway Council following their tender exercise in late 2012. We were awarded this status in December 2012.
Across both our Dartford and Rochester branches we employ 150 people and provide care to more than 500 service users in Kent.
On an annual basis we provide more than 150,000 hours of care.
Q: After we contact you what is the process of arranging care for myself or loved one?
Once we have spoken with you and gained some understanding of your likely needs we will be happy to arrange to meet you to discuss your needs in more depth.
An experienced care advisor from here2Care will meet you in your home and aim to better understand your needs and preferences and personal goals and desired outcome for the care you are seeking. This exercise helps us to introduce ourselves and also allows us to aim to match a carer that is best suited to your individual requirements.
Q: How will I pay for my care costs?
This will depend on your personal circumtances and please see the separate section on "Paying for Care" which deals with this important subject.
Q: Will I be involved in creating the care plan/service that you provide?
We are deeply committed to the "personalisation" agenda in social care which means that service-users are given real choice and control over their care provision.
We work in partnership with you to create a care/support plan that is tailored to meet your desired outcomes. The plan is detailed and provides clear information of how we will meet your personal care needs and also respect your individualism and your religious, cultural and gender needs.
Q: Will I be given clear information about how care works and what my entitlements are?
We have clear policies and procedures for ensuring you are involved and respected throughout our relationship with you. This means we aim to give you as much and as clear information we can about us and our services.
Our staff are trained to communicate clearly from the time you contact us by phone or in person and we will provide you with a written support/care plan specifying what we have agreed with you.
Q: What do you do to ensure that I am happy with the quality of my care and support?
Our client services manager will ensure that there is an open channel of communication for you to give feedback to us on your experience and we also have formal 3 monthly reviews with you in person to allow each of us to strive to improve your experience of our service.
Our managers and Directors also meet formally each month to review current practice and strive to continuously improve the level of service we provide. As part of this we pro-actively take account of service-users' survey findings and all relevant feedback from service-users and carers.
Q: How will you ensure that the people providing care will treat me with respect and dignity?
We undertake comprehensive recruitment and selection procedures which take account of the Essential Standards specified by CQC. The aim is to reassure you that your needs and welfare is paramount as we aim to recruit individuals suited for the carer role with the right skills, experience and qualifications.
Please also see the information in our "Care Quality Committment" section to see how we focus on improving quality across Here2Care.
Q: How will I have peace of mind that you will safeguard and protect me?
We completely support the importance of safeguarding specificed in CQC standards and also the Government White Paper on Social Care published in July 2012.
Our commitment to safeguarding is demonstrated in a number of ways and includes:
- ensuring staff receive training in safeguarding issues and that all are aware that we have a zero tolerance policy on this
- we directly monitor our service delivery through our Care Quality Officer's spot checks
- our support plans provide clear and concise information to you about how to complain and report any suspect behaviour
- we ensure that all our carers undergo enhanced CRB and ISA checks pre-employment
- our policies clearly ensure we partner with the loca authority by adhering to the Multiagency Safeguarding Protocols whenever appropriate
Q: How do you ensure that your staff understand diversity and equality issues?
Our written policies and training highlights the importance of meeting the diverse needs of service-users in particular recognising spiritual, cultural, religious, gender and physical needs.
All staff undertake an induction training where these commitments are made clear and each member of staff receives a handbook containing all policies including those relating to diversity and equality.
