Autonomy and Independence

The Excellence Care Services will assess, plan, deliver and review the care services it provides to clients with a view at all times to promoting autonomy and maintaining/increasing independence.

Procedure

Care Assessment and Personal Care Plans

The Excellence Care Services will involve the client in the assessment and planning of the care services they need, and seek the client’s opinion as to the most beneficial service which satisfies their own individual needs. Where possible, individual clients will be offered choice in the care to be provided, and the manner and frequency of its delivery. The Excellence Care Services’s aim will be to tailor a package of care which reflects need, offers choice, and respects the client’s opinion and judgement.

Review

The Excellence Care Services will agree a review schedule with the client upon creation of the inaugural Personal Care Plan. The client is entitled to request a review at any time. The review will take into account the manner in which care has been delivered, whether it is meeting the objectives which were set at the beginning, and any changes which have taken place in the client’s overall needs assessment. The review will focus on any changes which need to be made to satisfy current objectives, whilst at the same time ensuring that choices are maintained, and the plan continues, if possible, to promote and enhance independence.

Personal Finances

Control of personal finance is a key component of being able to demonstrate independence in living, and the Excellence Care Services will encourage, enable and empower, where possible, clients to make decisions in relation to their own lives, providing information, assistance and support where needed.

The Excellence Care Services will not seek to control the client’s finances and will only become involved in financial transactions where it has been specifically asked to do so either by the client, or the client’s carers, family or representatives. Where the Excellence Care Services is asked to become involved, then strict controls will be implemented to ensure that all funds/transactions are properly looked after and recorded.

Administration of Personal Care Needs

Where appropriate, care workers employed by the Excellence Care Services will seek to carry out tasks assigned to them with the client, as opposed, for example, to simply carrying out tasks for them. In this way the client becomes involved in the care process, and may, over time reduce dependence as confidence and competence increase.

The Excellence Care Services recognises that most interactions between care workers and their clients, demonstrate some form of dependence upon the care worker, and obligations exist therefore to ensure that a code of conduct is observed which ensures that all actions undertaken by the care worker:

A.) are with the express wish of the client;

B.) are conducted in such a way that the client does not feel undervalued or inadequate;

C.) are undertaken with a view to reducing dependence over a period of time, and reflecting this reduced dependence in the review of the Personal Care plan.

In addition, the Excellence Care Services will:

1. When caring for children, ensure that opportunity is taken to enable them to participate in the activity and to develop through learning and playing, and to protect them from abuse or harm;
2. Keep clients and their relatives or representatives fully informed about the service they receive and are provided with information in an appropriate format;
3. Ensure that care and support workers communicate with clients in their first, or, where agreed, their preferred language;
4. Provide that clients or their relatives or representatives (with the client’s permission) are able to see their personal files kept on the premises of the Excellence Care Services, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and are informed in writing that these files may be reviewed as part of the inspection and regulation process;
5. Ensure that  limitations  on  the  chosen  lifestyle  or  human  rights  to  prevent  self-­‐harm  or self-­neglect, or abuse or harm to others, are made only in the client’s best interest, consistent with the Excellence Care Services’s responsibilities in law, the limitations are recorded in full within the risk assessment and the plan for managing risks and entered into the Personal Care Plan;
6. Inform clients and their relatives or representatives about independent advocates who will act on their behalf and about self-­advocacy schemes.