Five Lamps Home Care, which provides personal care and support to residents in Stockton-on-Tees is celebrating after being rated as ‘Good’ in its second Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection and also winning The Care Innovator Award at the North East Regional Great British Care Awards.
The CQC rating was awarded following a recent inspection. Five Lamps were awarded a ‘Good’ rating in all 5 key areas of the inspection: safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
In their report, Inspectors recognised that people using the service felt safe and were happy with the care they received, and people were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives. Five Lamps Home Care staff promoted people’s independence and respected their rights, privacy and dignity. One person told Inspectors “It’s very good care, I feel safe and all the carers are very nice”
Staff Inspectors spoke to were happy in their job. One member of staff told the Inspectors, “I absolutely love my job. You get to know people and when you know you’ve made a difference to someone’s life and you’ve made them happy it’s so rewarding.”
Inspectors recognised the challenges Five Lamps had overcome in delivering community care services during the Covid-19 pandemic, commenting in the inspection report that additional guidance and training in infection prevention and control had been provided. Five Lamps ensured staff were supplied with enough PPE to undertake their work safely and could access regular testing.
The Inspectors praised Five Lamps’ approach to employee wellbeing, including the introduction of a 24-hour employee assistance scheme who was brought in at the start of the pandemic in recognition of the additional support care staff would need. The report also highlighted that Five Lamps had invested in emotional wellbeing training recently for all staff.
Five Lamps were also thrilled to win The Care Innovator Award at the North East Regional Great British Care Awards ceremony held in Newcastle on Tuesday 20 July 2021. Judges for the awards commented on how Five Lamps had shown great creativity through the pandemic and exceptional support to both customers and staff. As a regional winner of the 2020 Great British Care Awards in the North East, Five Lamps are through to the National Finals which take place in September 2021.
Nicola Garrett, Director of Corporate Services at Five Lamps said “The recent CQC rating is a powerful endorsement of the commitment and dedication of Five Lamps caring staff team who work incredibly hard to deliver safe and person-centred care.
I am so proud of our Home Care team who regular go above and beyond to support our customers; they have worked tirelessly throughout the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and really deserve this brilliant recognition from the CQC.
Being crowned winners of the Care Innovator award is fantastic achievement as this showcases how Five Lamps adapted during the pandemic to provide additional support to our customers and staff. We secured donations of additional PPE items and funding to provide our staff with electric bikes. We also ensured our customers were supported with food hampers when they were isolating and also worked with other local voluntary organisations to provide events such as afternoon tea at Parkside Court Extra Care Scheme”
Five Lamps have been delivering community services for over 30 years and developed its home care service in December 2016 in partnership with Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. Since then, the service has grown to deliver around 2,000 hours of weekly care; supporting people with personal care, helping them to get dressed, washed and eat, cleaning and shopping. The service also helps with social engagement and wellbeing and is the care provider at Parkside Court Extra-Care Scheme.
Five Lamps are recruiting care staff to be part of our growing team. If you would like to work for a service has an overall ‘Good’ CQC rating and you have a caring nature and attitude, we want to hear from you! Full training and induction will be provided. Please send your CV to homecare@fivelamps.org.uk.