Terms of service.

We try to provide an excellent service. We will do everything possible to respect your rights, particularly by observing the values of privacy, dignity, independence, choice, civil rights, security and fulfilment.

These are the terms of the Agreement between Cornwall Assist (“We”, “Us”, or “Our”) and “You”, “Your” and “Your home” (the Service User).

1. YOUR CHOICE OF SERVICE

1.1 We will offer a service which reflects Your needs and preferences and, in particular:

  • We will visit You and Your home to discuss Your requirements before We commence the Service free or charge.

  • We will work with You, Your family and any appropriate external social or health care professionals

  • We will enable and support You to be involved in decisions about the planning of the service you require;

  • We will design Our services with a view to ensuring Your wellbeing;

  • We will make reasonable adjustments, where required, to meet Your individual needs;

  • We will ensure that We have suitable facilities to meet Your needs and ensure Your safety; and

  • We will assess the risks to Your health and safety of receiving said service and do all that is reasonably practicable to mitigate such risks.

1.2 You will inform Us and keep Us informed of all information which may be relevant to the Your choice of service including, but not limited to, Your likes, dislikes, allergies, and lifestyle preferences, physical and medical conditions.

1.3 If You are unable to express Your preferences due to lack of capacity We will act in accordance with Your best interests when making decisions on Your behalf.

1.4 We will treat You with dignity and respect, ensure Your privacy and allow You as much autonomy, independence and involvement in Your choice of service as You wish, subject to the health, safety and welfare of Our staff. We will encourage You to manage Your own care as much as practicable.

1.5 We will take appropriate steps to prevent You from being abused or subject to improper treatment and We will respond promptly to allegations of abuse. We will deal with complaints in accordance with Our Complaints Procedure.

1.6 If Your needs change or increase to a level which cannot be met by Us, We will tell You without delay, and will endeavour to discuss alternative arrangements, and agree a mutually acceptable solution with You. We will continue to provide the Service to You during this period (unless We have given You notice to terminate under clause 10.9 and this Agreement has been terminated.

2. OUR FEES

2.1 We shall notify You, by way of a quotation, prior to commencing each service the basis on which our fee will be calculated, which may be:

(a) The time spent in minutes and hours providing the Service at the rates set out on our website (the means of recording the time spent providing the Service will be by way of timesheets), and/or

(b) The unit rate of 60p per mile when using Our vehicle (the means of recording the number of episodes will be by way of timesheet).

2.2 We will invoice You no later than the day after the service has been received. We shall clearly identify on our invoices any additional expenses incurred by us in performing the Service.

2.4 You will pay our Fees in accordance with the payment terms within 7 days of the date of each invoice.

2.5 We reserve the right, in the event that You have failed to pay the Fees, within 7 days of the date of each invoice, to:-

(a) Suspend the Service in accordance with clause 10.9 until payment has been made in full; and/or

(b) Charge interest on such sum from the due date at the rate of 5% per every 7 days that the payment remains unpaid and being compounded quarterly until payment is made, whether before or after any judgment and You shall pay interest immediately on demand.

2.6 We will be entitled to review and increase our Fees for the Service on an annual basis and at any other interval if:

There is a change to the Service; and/or

The cost of providing the Service increases; and / or

A change is necessary in order to comply with any applicable safety, regulatory or statutory requirements.

At the discretion of the Owners of the business

2.7 Unless the increase in our Fees is because of a change to the Service We will give You and / or Your representative at least 28 days’ notice of any increase in our Fees

2.8 If You do not agree to our increased Fees You may terminate this Agreement in accordance with clause 10.4.

3. OUR STAFF

3.1 We will exercise reasonable care and skill to meet Your individual needs and to provide suitably trained, skilled, experienced and competent staff to provide the Service.

3.2 We will endeavour to provide the service at your specified times, as far as is reasonably possible. In the event that it is necessary for a our staff to attend Your home at a different time to that agreed, We will give You as much notice as possible.

3.3 We will endeavour to supply a named member of staff each time We supply the Service to You. On occasions of staff holidays or sickness, Cornwall Assist undertake to retain the running of the Service where reasonably possible, and will use its best endeavours to provide an alternative member of staff if available. The Company will not, however, be liable to you for failure to provide such alternative staff if the Company is unable to do so.

3.4 Where annual leave, sickness, availability and unforeseen events require us to supply an alternative member of staff to your named staff, we will endeavour to give You as much advance notice as circumstances allow.

3.5 If a member of staff leaves an assignment early or fails to attend, or You are not satisfied with the standard of the Service, please telephone Cornwall Assist immediately, who will then endeavour to find a replacement member of staff as soon as reasonably practicable. Cornwall Assist will endeavour to provide the above Services to you when requested to do so, but does not accept any liability for its failure to do so.

3.6 Our staff are not permitted to carry out the following tasks:

(a) Heavy lifting of any kind, including lifting or moving You without appropriate equipment or a sufficient number of people to assist;

(b) Personal care, administrating medication, keyholder or assistance with Your finances

4. CONFLICT OF INTEREST / OFFERING OF GIFTS

4.1 The acceptance of personal consideration or benefit, or exercise of personal favour to any of our staff is prohibited. Any offer of inducement or reward will be politely, but firmly declined.

4.2 Articles of low intrinsic value, such as diaries, chocolates or similar small tokens of appreciation can be accepted but will be recorded accordingly.

5. YOUR HOME AS A WORKPLACE

5.1 We will supply the following: all staff personal protective equipment as appropriate. .Staff are required to wear appropriate protective equipment at all times, with the exception of escorted outings.

5.2 You will provide a safe environment and appropriate equipment to allow the staff to carry out the Service. This shall include:

(a) To maintain a generally clean and safe home free of risks and hazards;

(b) To maintain a safe route of access to and from Your home;

(c) To provide all domestic cleaning equipment such as antibacterial hand wash vacuum cleaners, mops, irons, cleaning equipment etc;

(d) To inform us of any communicable diseases in the household.

5.3 We are required to ensure that Your home and equipment is safe to use for the Provision of the Service. We will notify You if We find that Your home or equipment is not safe, and where possible assist You with making any necessary changes. Where You are unable or unwilling to make the necessary changes We will take time to consider Our options and this could result in the withdrawal of the Service.

5.4 Arrangements for our staff to enter and leave Your home are documented on the Company’s computer system and any access codes are kept confidential and shared only with the relevant staff, and details of any key code are sent to staff separately on a secure basis, for obvious security reasons.

5.5 Your telephone must not be used by our staff except for the following reasons:

(a) You or they have a medical emergency. We will not be responsible for payment of Your telephone bills; or

(b) They have been given permission by Yourself. We will not be responsible for payment of Your telephone bills.

5.6 We recognise Your right to smoke if You wish to. However, we also have a duty of care to our staff, and politely request that You and co-residents do not smoke during your appointment . We reserve the right to give notice should the working conditions become unacceptable due to high levels of smoke.

5.7 It is Our company policy that no staff member should smoke while on duty, in or outside Your home, even by invitation from You.

6. COMPLIMENTS AND COMPLAINTS PROCEDURES

6.1 We want to make it as easy as possible for You, or someone acting on Your behalf, to let Us know Your views and thoughts, and strongly believe through listening and learning We will improve the quality of the services We provide as well as encourage good practice by Our staff. We want to make sure that everyone can contact and communicate with Us in an open and honest manner and urge anyone to please let Us know if You would like help in making Your views known.

6.2 We always encourage open communication about Your satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the service We provide and We want You to know that You can always tell Us about Your experiences of the service You receive and We welcome suggestions from You on how We can improve things. We welcome complaints as well as compliments, and look upon them as opportunities to learn, adapt, improve and provide better services.

6.3 Please contact any member of staff with any feedback You have and please find the Owners contact details below should You wish to contact them at any time.

Owners: Claire & Rob Jefferies

Address: 2 Forge Fields , Lelant, St Ives TR26 3BE

Contact Phone: 01736 322610

Contact Email: claire@cornwallassist.co.uk

Complaints Procedure Cornwall Assist

HOW TO COMMUNICATE YOUR COMPLAINT TO US

At Cornwall Assist , we do everything that we can to ensure that our customers and their families have a good experience. If this has not been the case, then we are sorry and would really appreciate the opportunity to put things right; we take all complaints very seriously.

Importantly, we are eager to listen to you so that we can resolve the situation. Likewise, if you have an idea or suggestion on how we can improve our services, then please get in touch as we really welcome this.

Complaints Procedure

Should you have reason to complain, you can send it to us in the form of writing; by letter, email, or fax, or verbally by telephone

How we will handle your complaint

We have a complaints logging system to record your complaint and assign it to the most relevant member of the care team to investigate.

You will receive either a phone call, email or a letter within 3 working days, after contacting us, with an offer of a home visit so that we can discuss your concern and work together to resolve the matter.

Thank you for caring enough to give us the chance to improve.

7. CONFIDENTIALITY

7.1 We will respect Your privacy and confidentiality but You agree that We may disclose confidential information (including sensitive personal data) about You to our staff or to any other person if We believe such disclosure is in Your best interest; is appropriate for the performance of the Service; or is required as a matter of law.

8. LIABILITY FOR DAMAGE

8.1 We do not accept responsibility for damage to the fabric, fixtures, fittings and contents of Your home, howsoever caused, and You should make sure that Your home and contents insurance covers this risk. However, We would accept Our legal responsibilities for any justifiable claim.

8.2 You will ensure that, at all times during which the Services are being provided:

(a) You have in place suitable building and contents insurance to cover accidental damage to Your home or its contents.

9. WITHDRAWAL OF THE SERVICE

We reserve the right to withdraw a member of staff and/or to cancel this Agreement with immediate effect in circumstances which make the continued provision of the Service untenable. Such circumstances would include (but would not be limited to) failure by You, or someone else at Your home to provide a safe environment and/or appropriate equipment for the Service, sexual or racial harassment, extreme alcohol consumption, unreasonable behaviour or requests that a member of staff undertake unreasonable or illegal activities.

10. CANCELLATIONS AND TERMINATION

10.1 You can cancel the Service at any time (and for any reason) within 14 days of the date of this Agreement (the “Cooling Off Period”).

10.2 To exercise the right to cancel you must inform Cornwall Assist of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or email).

10.3 You must give us at least 14 days’ notice in writing if You no longer require the Service or want to suspend the Service for a period of time, once the initial 14 day “cooling off” period has been exceeded. If such notice is not given, an invoice will be payable based on the sum of £300 for immediate termination, or £150 for 48 hours notice. These amounts shall be payable by You by reason of the inconvenience of not giving the appropriate notice, to cover Cornwall Assist’s loss of income and our administration costs in planning the service rotas.

10.4 Please note if You suspend the service for a period of time in accordance with clause 10.5 We cannot guarantee that the same member of staff will be available to attend Your home when You resume the Service.

10.5 On occasion it may be necessary for You to cancel one or more of your booked visits. For hourly visits We require 48 hours notice of such a cancellation, to be given during office hours. Failure to do so will result in the full charge of the visit being levied, to cover Cornwall Assist’s loss of income. Cancellation of such visits MUST be reported to the main office and not to our members of staff.

10.6 If You turn away a member of staff at the door or shorten the visit, for any reason, You will be charged for the full time booked for that member of staff and We will use our best endeavours to provide an alternative staff member if so required.

10.7 If Your visits have to be cancelled due to a medical emergency i.e. hospitalisation, then no charge will be made.

10.8 We may terminate this Agreement:

(a) By giving 28 days’ written notice for any reason; or

(b) After giving 14 days’ written notice that You have failed to pay the Fees; or

(c) After giving 7 days’ written notice that We are unable to meet Your needs,

10.9 This Agreement will terminate immediately in the event of Your death and (for the avoidance of doubt) Your estate will remain responsible for paying any outstanding fees.

10.10 For any one off Service appointments you have booked, if you cancel your within 24 Hrs of said appointment time then We reserve the right to charge you 50% of the total amount due to help cover the loss of Our income.

11. THIRD PARTY RIGHTS

No person who is not a party to this Agreement is to have any right pursuant to the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to benefit from or to enforce any provision of this Agreement and the parties to this Agreement may agree to cancel or vary the whole of any part of this Agreement without being required to seek or obtain the consent of any third party.

12. EVENTS OUTSIDE OUR CONTROL

12.1 We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform or delay in performance of any of our obligations for any reason outside of our reasonable control, such as Acts of God (for example, riot, civil commotion, fire, flood, fuel shortages, strikes or labour disturbances and transport disruptions whether involving Our Employees or any other party). All reasonable endeavours, in such an event, will be made to provide staff members, though this provision of the service may be suspended while the interruption continues. We will not be liable to You for any loss You may have suffered and/or cost You may incur as a result of the interference or interruption.

12.2 You will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform or delay in performance of any of Your obligations for any reason beyond Your reasonable control.

13. GENERAL

13.1 We may vary these terms and conditions in writing by giving You and / or Your representative at least 14 days’ notice. If You do not agree to the variation You may terminate this Agreement in accordance with clause 10.4.

13.2 If any provision of this Agreement is found by a court or other competent authority to be invalid or unenforceable that shall not affect the validity of the remainder of this Agreement.

13.3 The Agreement, these Terms and Conditions and the Service constitute all the terms and conditions between You and Us (subject to the variations allowed for by those Terms and Conditions) and is made to supersede all previous agreements and arrangements relating to Your care.

13.4 You acknowledge that You have not been induced to enter into this Agreement by any representation or promise that the Agreement does not expressly contain (but this clause shall not exclude any liability for any representation made by Us that was made fraudulently).

13.5 Unless We agree with You otherwise, any notice required to be given to Us under the Agreement shall be in writing and shall be delivered personally, or sent by pre-paid first-class post, recorded delivery or by courier. Any notice required under the Agreement shall not be validly served if sent by other means.

13.6 This Agreement shall be constructed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales.

13.7 Should this Agreement remain unsigned for any reason but the Service accepted i.e. care having commenced; this Agreement will be taken as implied and in force.