Fylde coast care at home firm is rated as outstanding by health inspectors

Westmorland Homecare Poulton, Fylde and Wyre, which has 70 staff, provides hundreds of hours of care each week, which enable elderly and often frail people in the area to live independently in their own home.

Its services include home care, such as help with housekeeping and meal preparation, and personal care, such as help with dressing, bathing and getting in and out of bed.

The CQC, the independent regulator of health and social care services in England, assessed five key areas - whether the service was safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led.

It picked up “good” ratings for the first two and “outstanding” for the latter three. The overall rating was “outstanding”.

Registered manager Becky Ashmore said she was delighted: “We strive to provide outstanding care and that has been recognised.

“We started about three years ago in 2019 and we were going along nicely, then the Covid pandemic hit and we faced many challenges. To be rated as outstanding is testament to the amazing care shown by our health care assistants and the way they have kept their clients and themselves safe.

“In some cases, the families of clients who lived some distance away could not come to their relatives during lockdowns and our health care assistants had to step in to their roles to some extent.

“The dedication and passion they have for their clients means it is natural for them to go above and beyond. We don’t ask them to do it - they do it because of the bond they have.”

Becky highlighted how the team had contacted local garden centres, which donated pots, soil and sunflower seeds. Health care assistants took these to clients’ homes and helped them to plant the seeds.

Company Director Russell Crossley said: “The rating is recognition of our staff’s excellence, hard work, perseverance and an absolute positive impact on our clients’ lives.”

He added: “It’s never easy to be recognised as an outstanding care provider, especially throughout a pandemic and all the crisis that surrounds one.”

In its overall summary the CQC stated: “People benefitted from exceptionally caring staff that provided continuity of support. The feedback from people demonstrated the caring and empowering culture was well embedded across the organisation.”

It added that “People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.”