hampshire Archives - Altogether Care

A Better Way to Recruit Staff in Dorset, South Somerset and Hampshire

Posted on 18 July 2019 by dukadmin

Unfilled job vacancies are at unprecedented levels in the UK. According the Office of National Statistics there are 2.9 vacancies for every 100 jobs. The average time taken to fill posts is also growing.

Among the sectors suffering most are hotels, food service businesses and health and social care. Around Dorset, South Somerset and Hampshire we are certainly seeing some of this pressure.

There’s a real challenge for organisations, from hotels and restaurants, to schools, surgeries and care providers to find not just people, but the right people. The question is, where to turn for help?

One option is the recruitment agencies who, to be honest, are struggling just as much as anyone to find good candidates.

Another option is to work with a more specialist expert in this field, that has over 30 years’ experience recruiting its own staff in roles as diverse as chefs, cleaners, handymen, admin, care and nursing. We recently launched Altogether Connect to share our recruitment expertise with other organisations in Dorset, South Somerset and Hampshire, looking specifically for these types of staff that can be especially hard to find as the competition for staff intensifies.

We seem to have an eye for spotting talented people who are ready to build a career with an organisation. We must be doing something right because many of our own staff have been with us for over ten years. The process starts with attracting and identifying the right people in the first place, with the skills, values and behaviours needed to be a productive and valued colleague.

As an employer and a care business, we also have first-hand experience of how to recruit these people and what they are looking for, which gives us a unique insight that other recruiters may lack.

Given our background, we specialise in recruiting care staff, nursing, chefs, handymen, catering staff and cleaners (domestic and commercial). And we help find people to fill these roles in restaurants, hotels, schools, doctors’ surgeries and social care providers. We also help individuals find trusted people to provide these services in their own homes.

So, if finding good quality staff in and around Dorset, Somerset or Hampshire is one of your biggest headaches give Altogether Connect a try. Find out more and enquire here.

What Does a CQC Inspection Rating Really Mean?

Posted on 4 December 2018 by dukadmin

Relax – this isn’t going to be a detailed explanation of how the Care Quality Commission conducts inspections or formulates a rating for a particular care provider. This is intended to be an overview that will help you put ratings into context. The best advice if you want to know about a particular care provider is often to go and look for yourself.

Inspections seek to answer five key questions:

Is the service safe?
Is it effective?
Is it caring?
Is it responsive to service user needs?
Is it well-led?

Each of these questions is rated according to a four-point scale: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, Inadequate. There is no category for ‘satisfactory.’

The ratings for each of these questions are then aggregated to form an overall rating. Each question has an equal weighting. So, for example, a provider rated Good in four categories and Requires Improvement in one will normally have an overall rating of Good.

However, there are a few complications. For example, no provider can be rated better than Requires Improvement if there has been a breach of the regulations. It may also be worth bearing in mind that inspection findings are based to a large extent on the presentation of evidence, rather than direct observation of the care service users receive.

What Does ‘Good’ Mean?

The overall rating will normally be Good if there are no key question ratings of Inadequate and no more than one key question rating of Requires Improvement. There are actually many combinations that could result in an overall rating of Good, so it might help to look at the rating and judgement for each question individually. If the ratings for safe, effective and caring are all good this may cover your main concerns.

An overall rating of Requires Improvement may also need interpretation. There may well be three aspects of the service that are rated good and two that require improvement. The service could be safe, effective and caring but was unable to show inspectors sufficient evidence that it should be rated Good for being well led or responsive.

Likewise, if two or more of the key questions are rated as inadequate, then the overall rating will normally be Inadequate, even if some aspects of the service are good.

At the other end of the scale, an overall rating of Outstanding doesn’t mean that a provider is outstanding in all areas. It can be outstanding in two areas and good in three. So, a provider rated outstanding for being caring may have a lower overall rating than one that is rated as good for the same question (we did say it wasn’t straightforward). Choosing a care home or home care provider is a big decision. There are many factors to consider and the CQC rating is useful guidance. But it often helps to dig a bit deeper to see the real story behind the rating.

You can find more about our Care Homes and Care at Home service ratings here.

Altogether Care and Wiltshire Farm Foods Spread Some Seasonal Cheer

Posted on 29 November 2018 by dukadmin

As a family-run care business for over 30 years, you really get to know the communities you serve. Which means, when it comes to Christmas, we are only too aware that many older people could be faced with a very lonely prospect. For many, Christmas is a time when they see no one and feel very much alone.

According to Age UK, over 870,000 people over 65 won’t see or hear from anybody for days over the festive period. Many will feel lonelier than at any other time of the year. Not exactly the Christmas spirit.

Determined to make sure that old people in our community who live on their own see at least one smiling face on Christmas Day, Altogether Care has, once again, partnered with Wiltshire Farm Foods. Working together, we will provide free Christmas dinners to elderly people across Dorset and South Somerset.

This year our team will be distributing meals on Christmas Day, kindly donated by Wiltshire Farm Foods. Just as important as the meals, our care staff will spend time with each person to enjoy a mince pie, pull a cracker and spread a little Christmas cheer.

Some of the people who will benefit are our Care at Home clients who have no friends or family to visit on the day. We are also teaming up with Age UK to identify other people in the Dorset and South Somerset area who would appreciate a bit of company and a tasty festive meal.

We are, as ever, incredibly grateful to Wiltshire Farm Foods for their generosity. And to our dedicated team who give up their time because they know that, at Christmas, older people on their own probably need us more than ever.

Care is much more than a business for us. We see our role as supporting vulnerable people in a community that we are part of, at Christmas and all year round. For more information, please call 01305 766 099 and ask for Dawn or Rachel.

Home Care Services in Southampton – Extending the Altogether Care Family

Posted on 13 September 201822 February 2024 by dukadmin

Care at home is a lifeline for many elderly people. Being able to receive help with tasks such as getting in and out of bed, washing, dressing and housework can make all the difference to people who need some assistive care but want to stay in their own home.

Knowing a trusted home care provider can make all the difference. Altogether Care has an established reputation for providing high quality residential and domiciliary care in Dorset and Somerset. We are driven by helping people to live as independently as possible. Building on this success, we are now able to offer the following care services in the Southampton area:

Personal Care,
Live-in Care,
Getting out and about,
Domestic support,
Sleeping/Waking night care,
Companionship and sitting service

We aim to help people continue to live life as independently as possible, with the reassurance that help is available through pre-arranged visits at times they choose. Just because everyday tasks are becoming a little more difficult, it doesn’t mean that you have to give up your independence.

Extended Services

Staying in your own home might also mean that some help is needed with every day, non-care activities such as DIY, gardening and cleaning. To make life easier for our clients we’ve extended our services to include these tasks. Whatever support you need you can get it from one trusted organisation.

Being an established care provider means that we can carefully select and vet tradespeople who will understand your needs and be ideally suited to helping older people in their own homes.

In launching our Southampton office, we are bringing the same family-run, caring approach that has earned us an excellent reputation for in care for 30 years. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch with us on 02382 351 800 or visit our Southampton home care services page.