Assist Care Group – Surrey rated Outstanding by the CQC
The Care Quality Commission has rated Assist Care Group – Surrey Outstanding overall, with Outstanding ratings for Caring and Well-led. The assessment recognises exceptional compassionate care, distinctive leadership and a culture of kindness, inclusion and continuous improvement.
“This service is exceptionally caring.”
Care Quality Commission
It is an extraordinary recognition for our team. But when we read the report, it wasn’t the rating at the top of the page that meant the most to us.
It was the words underneath it.
In its accompanying press release, the CQC also recognised the wider significance of the assessment. Amy Jupp, Deputy Director for Adult Social Care in Surrey, said:
“Other services can look to it to see what outstanding looks like in a home care setting.”
What does Outstanding care look like?
The CQC spoke with people receiving our care, their families, our colleagues and other professionals. They examined how we care for people day to day, how we respond when circumstances change, and what happens when somebody needs us most.
One relative, whose family member has received support from Assist since 2007, told the CQC:
“I have nothing but absolute praise for them in all aspects of their care. They are outstanding.”
Another person simply said:
“[Staff] are always kind, they are fantastic.”
And one family wrote:
“Thank you for taking such exceptional care of someone so important to my family and me.”
Those words matter enormously to us.
The CQC saw examples of colleagues extending their shifts when people became unwell, waiting with people for ambulances, responding to unexpected hospital discharges and supporting families through sudden end-of-life situations. Inspectors found that people’s privacy, dignity and individuality were embedded in the way our colleagues provide care.
Their assessment concluded that people experienced:
“…an exceptional service that delivered compassionate care and meaningful outcomes when people needed support most.”
The culture behind the care
The CQC also rated Assist Outstanding for Well-led, finding that:
“Service leadership was exceptional and distinctive. Leaders and the culture they created drove and improved high-quality, person-centred care.”
But perhaps the sentence that best describes the Assist we have always tried to build is this:
“The service had an exceptional culture of kindness, openness, inclusion and continuous improvement.”
The CQC recognised our commitment to colleagues as well as the people we care for: workforce wellbeing, openness and speaking up, equality and inclusion, innovation and our work to challenge inequality within the wider social care sector.
They found that Assist had retained colleagues exceptionally well, helping people to benefit from experienced carers, continuity and trusted relationships.
“Would this be good enough for my loved one?”
During the assessment, our Managing Director and Nominated Individual, Tim Wilson, explained to the CQC the principle that sits behind Assist:
“Our ambition is not simply to achieve a rating. Our ambition is for every colleague, every process, and every decision to withstand one simple question: Would this be good enough for my loved one? If the answer is yes, we continue. If the answer is no, we improve.”
Reflecting on the Outstanding rating, Tim said:
“To now have the the CQC independently describe Assist as exceptionally caring and exceptionally well-led is something I am incredibly proud of. But the most important words in this report aren’t mine. They’re the words of the people we care for, their families and our colleagues. This Outstanding rating belongs to them.
We will celebrate it. We will learn from it. And tomorrow, we carry on caring.”
An Outstanding ☆ thank you
An Outstanding service isn’t created during an inspection. It is created visit by visit, conversation by conversation, by people doing the right thing when somebody depends upon them.
So this recognition belongs to every colleague who contributed to the service the CQC saw; to the people and families who trusted us with their care; to the health and social care professionals who work alongside us; and to everyone who took the time to share their experiences with the CQC. Thank you.
The CQC’s overall conclusion perhaps says it best:
“Overall, staff delivered exceptional compassionate care, while distinctive leadership drove personalised support, timely interventions, workforce stability and continuous improvement.”
Yours sincerely,
Tim Wilson
Managing Director & Nominated Individual
Assist Care Group
