Health & Care at Home

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by Health & Care at Home's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from Health & Care at Home is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Blunkett signature Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett
Pickles signature Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.healthandcareathome.co.uk

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
36 | HEALTH AND CARE AT HOME
DrCliveAcraman, Managing
Director
“We are like a family”
– June P 2018
Health and Care at Home is a private company with a
growing reputation for delivering high-quality, premium
nursing and care services in the home of the people
that choose to use their service. Managing Director Dr Clive
Acraman enjoyed a long career in public service, spread across
children’s and adult’s services in social care and the NHS, prior
to leaving the NHS in 2015. Clive left the NHS because he
believed there was a better way to support people at home.
They are passionate about person centred care, and work
alongside the people who use their service, their family, friends
and community to understand their life history, values and
belief systems. This enables staff to empower their customers to
continue to be the people they have always been.
We are a highly experienced and professional team providing unique and
innovative care. Our services are provided in the comfort of our customers’ personal
residence. We have been successfully providing high-quality domiciliary health and
care services across Cornwall for three years. All our care staff are employed directly
by us. They are skilled, talented practitioners with experience of working within
a community setting and each holds a minimum Level 2 qualification in health
andcare.
In addition to our carers, we have a team of professional practitioners, registered
nurses, occupational therapists and social workers, all of whom are registered with
the Royal College of Nursing or Health and Care Professions Council.
FACTS ABOUT
HEALTH AND CARE AT HOME
»Managing Director:
DrCliveAcraman
»Founded in 2015
»Based in Newquay, Cornwall
»No. of employees: 20
»Services: Nursing, nursing
care, occupational therapy
assessments, palliative care,
end of life care, dementia
care, personal care, household
support, meal preparation and
assistance to attend community
based clubs and activities
»www.healthandcareathome.co.uk
Health and Care at
Home
37HEALTH AND CARE AT HOME |
BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2019
The team are available to support
our customers at any time, assessing
people while they are in hospital,
co-producing care plans, ensuring
their home is discharge ready with
the correct equipment in place
and assisting their discharge home
where necessary. Our occupational
therapists and registered nurses are
actively involved in establishing all
communication and links between
ourselves and the statutory services,
while our carers develop the
relationships that nurture positive,
high-quality and sustainable outcomes
alongside ourcustomers.
Our care planning process is overseen
by our professional practitioners.
Central to our success is our ability to
build and maintain relationships with
GP practices, community nurses and
other healthpractitioners.
All people living with temporary or
permanent health conditions receive
a full nursing assessment prior to our
service beginning, and this helps to
inform our care planning process.
With consent from the person we are
to care for or support, the outcome
of this, and regular nursing reviews,
is shared with other practitioners
involved with the person such as their
GP, community matron and district
nursing service. We believe this is
important to maintain accurate and
contemporaneous communication
between ourselves and the
statutoryservices.
What we do
All our staff are trained to listen
to our customers, to understand
what is important to them in terms
of their care and support and to
respond in a way that works for
them. We understand that a warm
smile and a chat are sometimes
more important than the tasks that
people need performed. Everything
we do is built on evidence-based
practice and focuses on building
excellent, enduring relationships with
the people we care for and support.
We understand the importance
of developing truly person-
centredpractices.
We have a minimum call time of one
hour. This allows us to support people
We support people so
they can stay in their
own home
Reablement,
supporting
people to be as
independent as
possible, for as
long as possible,
is central to
what we do
“
“
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
38 | HEALTH AND CARE AT HOME
at their own pace. We recognise that
tasks are important, but the person
is more important than the task,
and allowing people time enables
us to undertake our roles more
effectively. While we are with people
who use our service, we are happy
to support them in any way that is
safe. We are happy to offer them a
cafetière and read of the newspaper
first thing in the morning, or a full
English breakfast prepared for them
after the shower. We are also happy
to accompany our customers on
a holiday at home or abroad, and
of course support those coming to
Cornwall to enjoy their vacation. Put
simply, we will support any person
who uses our service with complex
nursing interventions, personal care,
domiciliary chores, shopping and
community activities.
One person who used our service,
June, had been advised by mainstream
services to move into a nursing home;
however, she refused to give up on
returning home. On discharge to her
own home, against advice from the
hospital, we began to work with her
privately. She had been in hospital for
eight months, but our carers supported
June alongside her family. June was
able to be nursed and cared for at her
own pace, and she was determined
not to be dependent on others all
of her life as she had been told she
would be. Gradually, June began to
feel stronger; she moved slowly from
requiring a hoist, to being able to
support herself, and new equipment
was introduced to allow June to bear
weight for the first time in a year
without assistance. Within five months
of returning home, June was walking
independently and no longer required
our services.
How we do it
Our talented team of professionals
and practitioners have the skills and
talents to support people living at
home with the most complex medical
conditions and to support planned
and co-ordinated hospital discharges.
We always undertake an assessment
of the person’s requirements and
their nursing, social and occupational
therapy needs. These assessments can
be undertaken in any setting, to allow
for the comfort and convenience of
our customers.
Once we have an understanding of
our customer’s health, care and social
requirements, we co-produce a care
plan, which explicitly states what we
are being asked to do, how we will
achieve it, where it will take place
and when it will be completed. These
personalised care and support plans
also explain who the person is, as
much of their life story as they wish
to share – names of family, friends
and key events help us to initiate
conversation and understand more
about the person we support. We
also pay close attention to what is
important to the people who use
our service and how they wish to be
supported. Our care and support plans
are very clear about how, where and
when the care will be administered.
Openness and transparency are
a crucial part of our process, and
our planning process ensuring the
service we provide is clear, supportive
andsafe.
Our talented
team of
professionals
and practitioners
have the skills
and talents to
support people
living at home
with the most
complex medical
conditions and
to support
planned and
co-ordinated
hospital
discharges
“
“
We support people
at home and in the
community

www.healthandcareathome.co.uk

This article was sponsored by Health & Care at Home. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng

This year’s Parliamentary Review reflects on a tumultuous and extraordinary year, globally and nationally. As well as being an MP, I am a keen student of history, and I am conscious that 2020 would mark the end of an era. It will be remembered as the year in which we concluded Brexit negotiations and finally left the European Union. Above all, it will be remembered as the year of Covid-19.

In our fight against the pandemic, I am delighted that our vaccination programme is beginning to turn the tide – and I pay tribute to the British businesses, scientists and all those who have helped us to achieve this. But the virus has dealt enormous damage, and we now have a duty to rebuild our economy.

We must ensure that businesses are protected. We have made more than £350 billion available to that end, with grants, business rates relief and our furlough scheme supporting more than 11 million people and jobs in every corner of the country, maintaining livelihoods while easing the pressure on employers. The next step is to work with business to build back better and greener, putting the net zero carbon challenge at the heart of our recovery. This is a complex undertaking, but one which I hope will be recognised as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Through the prime minister’s ten point plan for a green industrial revolution, we can level up every region of the UK, supporting 250,000 green jobs while we accelerate our progress towards net zero carbon emissions.

With our commitment to raise R&D spending to 2.4% of GDP and the creation of the Advanced Research & Invention Agency, we are empowering our fantastic researchers to take on groundbreaking research, delivering funding with flexibility and speed. With this approach, innovators will be able to work with our traditional industrial heartlands to explore new technologies, and design and manufacture the products on which the future will be built – ready for export around the globe.

And I believe trade will flourish. We are a leading nation in the fight against climate change. As the host of COP26 this year, we have an incredible opportunity to market our low-carbon products and expertise. Our departure from the EU gives us the chance to be a champion of truly global free trade; we have already signed trade deals with more than 60 countries around the world.

As we turn the page and leave 2020 behind, I am excited about the new chapter which Britain is now writing for itself, and for the opportunities which lie ahead of us.
Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy