By Karen Shaw. R.M.N R.G.N. D.M.S. BSc. Proprietor and Manager Kepplegate care		Kepplegate Statement of Purpose Domiciliary Documentation
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The aim of the service is to provide care and support to older people in their own home, with quality and flexible support packages that meet their needs, and enhance their quality of life, whilst maximizing their independence.

Care and support workers may provide care directly themselves but it is more likely that the care will be provided together with the person needing the care or support, encouraging the person to do as much as possible for themselves to maintain their independence and daily living skills. Care and support workers will be providing support and assistance to older people with a range of needs usually arising from getting older, from hearing impairment and failing sight through to disability due to for e.g. a stroke, giving people assistance with bodily functions such as bathing and toileting through to emotional, psychological and not forgetting social support like going to bingo.

The service is user focused; from the point of referral that could be a telephone call from an older person themselves, through to a social worker making an assessment of need and calling the agency to ascertain its availability to provide the service. The agency will visit every referral and complete a needs assessment in discussion with the client themselves and any other significant other person that they may want to give them support and help in establishing their needs. Risk assessments are undertaken of the support and the client's home, and agreed flexible care plans are written up, ensuring that clients are empowered to make choices concerning their care, participating in the process in order to maximize their independence and quality of life.

The agency will review the support in place after the first two weeks to ensure that the support is meeting the needs of the client. And then every 3 months unless there is a change in the clients well being in which case the care plan will be reviewed at that time in order to better meet any new needs. The agency will introduce the care worker to the client and it will be expected that the same care worker will attend to the client unless there are holidays or sickness occurring or if the clients needs change and the present care worker is not able to carry out the new duties, always engaging in dialogue to ensure smooth provision of service.

The manager of the service is a qualified nurse, RMN. RGN, with a DMS management qualification, and latterly a Degree in Gerontology, BSc, which focused on supporting older people in various settings including the community, all care staff employed will either have, or be working toward NVQ level 2 in health and social care, all assessments of clients needs will be carried out by the service manager, or one of the NVQ level 3 care managers or senior staff , there are other senior care staff who have level 2 NVQ and all our other care staff have Level 2 NVQ qualification. All staff have mandatory training and also we cover other topics relevant to our clients such as understanding dementia, adult abuse and PEG feed training, enabling us to provide a competent work force to our clients.

The assessments will be carried out between the hours of 9am to 4pm from Monday to Friday, the office will be open from 9am to 5pm , Monday to Friday, and an out of hour's message service will be operated outside these hours for communication regarding existing clients. The service is insured with ecclesiastical insurance covering staff and their working practice, and residents

The contract (See appendix A) outlines the full terms and conditions of the service, namely the cost to the client and how they will be billed, any costs due to cancellation of services by the client and termination of the service by either the client or the agency, it also addresses our commitment in providing the service which was agreed with the client and the level of flexibility with the service, but reminding the clients that the agency has a duty of care to staff as well as clients, for e.g. we are not professional tradesmen nor do we provide a nursing service, all of which will be discussed, with an ensured understanding of this from the client, and the contract will be signed following the agreement of the care plan.

A copy of the complaints procedure ( See appendix B ) will also be given at that time, along with the initial quality questionnaire ( See appendix C ) explaining how it will be completed after the first two weeks of commencement of the service and explaining how important feedback is to us in enabling us to continually improve the service that we provide. The quality assurance process commences from day one, and the initial quality review of the service takes place after two weeks, which enables any issues or problems to be rectified in the early stages, then a quality review of the service takes place again after six months, all the questionnaires are reviewed and a report on the findings is compiled and made available every 12 months.

The service has a policy and procedure file available in the office with access available for all staff, service users and significant others. Key policies/procedures are discussed and given to clients during the initial consultation and they are: - Health & Safety so that there is an understanding and transparency for clients and staff to comply with good working practices, a complaints and compliments procedure so clients can feel confident that they can complain about their service without recourse, and of course we would like to get compliments when we do things well, and also we will ensure that there is an understanding about what abuse or bad practice is and why it must be reported.

If there is a need to contact The Commission for Social Care Inspection, then the address is:-

CSCI
Second Floor,
Unit 1,
Port Way,
Preston .
PR2 2YQ