Archived: Blyford Residential Home

We spoke with eight people who used the service and two visiting family members. One person preferred to be in their own home, but everyone else expressed positive views. One person said, “Staff here are brilliant. I can’t find fault”. A visitor said, “I don’t think you would find a better place”.

We looked at four people’s care plans. These were comprehensive, current and reviewed to ensure they reflected people’s changing needs. Daily notes confirmed that care was being delivered as planned.

The four members of staff we spoke with said they felt well supported. We were told that morale was, “The best it has been for a while”. Staff received supervision and felt that training was good. One commented that sometimes they were a bit stretched in the mornings, but did not feel this affected people who used the service. A colleague agreed and added, “You get there in the end." We found no evidence to substantiate concerns about low morale. Staff comments and our observations of team working indicated the contrary.

The majority of people who use this service were living with dementia. To enable us to assess people’s wellbeing we spent time sitting with them in one of the lounges observing the care they received and the level of staff interaction with the people.

We observed that the staff were attentive to people’s needs. We saw that staff respected people’s privacy and dignity and sought their agreement before providing any support or assistance. The people we saw were relaxed, engaged with their surroundings and interacted with each other.

We talked with five of the people who used the service and three visiting relatives. People told us that they were comfortable and liked living there. One person told us, “I like it here, people are friendly.” Another person told us that staff, “Look after me how I like it.” One person’s relative said, “We are always kept informed of what’s going on.”

We found that staff were supported through supervision and that they received training essential for caring for older people, staff were knowledgeable about the people they supported. The service had appropriate safeguards in place to protect people from abuse and people told us that they felt safe living in the service.