Homecare in Sussex gets new name backed by parent firm with Outstanding CQC rating & client choice commitment
Optimal Future is the sister company of the award-winning, outstanding CQC-rated healthcare provider Hilton Nursing Partners.
CEO Ann Taylor, who set up Hilton Nursing Partners, took over the running of Optimal Future in 2022. She has now rebranded it to carry the name Hilton Home Care and has promised the same commitment to ensuring clients’ wishes are paramount, giving them the choice of where they live and how they live.
She explained the ethos behind her business approach and says quality home care begins with recruiting and retaining the best staff who share the determination to do everything to provide the client with the life they want to lead.
It’s about respecting individuals wishes,” she said. “I will be a strong advocate for anyone in helping them to be in control of both the kind of care they want and need, and the place in which they live and receive that care.
It should be up to each individual to choose where they live next, and how they move forward into the future, however long that future might be.
A fresh approach to care
Ann came from a domiciliary care background and had 20 years’ experience in the industry, but was still shocked and disillusioned with some of the care options given to individuals. It was whilst she was visiting her own mother in hospital that she witnessed the distress of another older patient, with no family to help out, who had been brought into hospital after a fall. The lady was released from hospital into a care home, without any of her questions or concerns answered properly and no choice in where she went.
“It was inhumane,” Ann says. “She kept asking if the paramedics had shut her door when the ambulance brought her to hospital, and she was worried because she’d come out without her handbag.
“The social care staff just kept saying ‘don’t worry, we’ll sort all that out’ but that wasn’t answering her worries.”
Ann says she can never forget the moment the lady was wheeled away to her new home – a nursing home she had not visited, did not know the address of and had not chosen.
“She just said ‘So this is how it ends’,” says Ann. The experience made her determined to change the options for older people who need care, and that starts, she says, with getting the right staff, and looking after them.
Recruiting and retaining the best staff
“We are really proud of the model we have for our staff, how we recruit and train our staff and retain them,” she said. Working towards a good work/life balance and offering staff training and career development is part of it. Staff were initially offered share options, but now that has changed and the company is an Employee Owned Trust, meaning all staff can have a stake in the business.
“It gives the workforce a voice in what they are doing and ensures that we are always person-focussed first and foremost.
“Hilton Nursing Partners has had nothing but outstanding ratings since I set it up. I believe this is because of the way we set it up, I will not compromise on the quality of what we do,” she said. “This same standard is part of Optimal Futures, which now comes under the Hilton Nursing Partners brand.
Your future and your choice
Whatever your circumstances, whether you or a loved one need care in a crisis, leaving hospital and need some recuperation care, have dementia or Alzheimer’s, or just need some help with household tasks or personal care then Hilton Home Care have the expertise to navigate through the options, and the health and social care system, to ensure you get the care you would choose.
Ann calls it the ‘home to decide’ service, which has been running in Kent and will now be introduced into Sussex. The first step is to visit people where they are –in hospital, at home or in a care or nursing home – and discuss all options.
“If they are happy to go into a care home or nursing home, that’s fine, but which home should be their choice, so we will take them to visit different ones to find a place that suits them and their lifestyle,” says Ann
It puts the client and their family firmly in control.
If people want to be in their own home, that choice will be met – even if it means 24-hour nursing care. Ann and her team will ensure that everything is set up at home to meet the person’s needs to keep them safe, including adaptations and equipment in the home.
There is a two-week assessment period at home to ensure that they are able to be safely cared for in their home environment – but during that time the person at the heart of the care will be the primary concern.
“Sometimes difficult conversations have to be had,” she says, but the outcomes speak for themselves. “70 per cent of people we bring home in this service do not go into a care home. “
Sometimes simple things such as getting relatives, or neighbours, to call in or do small tasks is part of the approach.
“Older people are often reluctant to ask for help, but we will connect people to the community around them.
“We will ensure that everything will be done to give people the choice they want, if it’s within our gift you will get it.”
Find out more
Visit the website to find out more about Hilton Home Care in West Sussex and beyond