Turn Furlong

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence. This is the first assessment for this newly registered service. This key question has been rated good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People’s care and treatment was effective as their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs were assessed and reviewed. People and their relatives had a meeting with therapy staff when they moved into the service.

Staff assessed people during the meeting so they could understand the person’s condition and formulate a treatment plan based on what was important to them and what their goals were. Therapists, along with the nursing and care team worked together as a MDT so the emotional, functional and practical needs of the person could be understood. Assessments were regularly reviewed to ensure they continued to meet people’s needs, and any changes were identified and responded to.

People confirmed their involvement in reviews of their care. One person told us, “I am very happy with treatment and follow ups”.

A relative confirmed, “When our [relative] moved into [Turn Furlong], we were told how long [they] can stay and what to expect. We will see next steps. Our [relative] can also speak and ask the staff anything, and we visit after our work and over weekend, but we speak every day”.

People’s care and treatment was developed with them, including what was important and mattered to them.

Staff worked to plan and deliver high quality care based on best practice and evidence-based research, in line with legislation.

Staff explained how they made sure people were receiving evidence-based treatment using a baseline measure of the person’s psychological, social, functional and practical state. The baseline was used to develop a care plan in line with the person's goals and planned outcomes.

People’s progress was regularly reviewed using a multidisciplinary approach to measuring achievement towards each goal. Where progress was not as anticipated, alternative treatments or therapies had been explored. A member of staff explained, “MDT meetings are about people and their progress and can include senior staff and nurses, as it is where we talk about health and care information, this is then shared with us at handover”.

Assessments of people’s nutritional risks were supported by evidence-based guidance such as the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) which is a nationally recognised and validated screening tool for adults to establish nutritional risk. Staff made sure people had enough to eat and drink, including those with specialist nutrition and hydration needs. They used special feeding and hydration techniques when necessary.

Specialist support from staff such as dietitians and speech and language therapists was available for people who needed it, with the intention of people going home with the lowest level of support needed.

People were supported by staff that worked well across teams. One relative told us, “All the professionals get to work together here at Turn Furlong”.

Staff told us nurses, care staff, the therapy team, and other healthcare professionals worked together as a team to benefit people and supported each other to provide good care. For example, a member of staff told us, “We have regular MDT meetings to discuss what staff are worried about and concerns. These meetings are for people senior staff and nurses, where they talk about health and care matters and this information is shared with us during handovers”.

Staff told us they were kept informed about changes in people’s needs through staff and handover meetings, and working together.

There were established links with the GP who visited the service regularly. This meant healthcare professionals could build up a knowledge of people and ensure continuity of care. Healthcare professionals told us information was available when they needed it and any requests to carry out monitoring checks were complied with.

The management team had told us there had been some challenges when the two organisations came together to form this service. The provider has since held some joint training sessions for their workforce and that of their partner NHFT. Staff had told us they had benefited from shared training arrangements. The registered manager also told us they had created champions within the service, for example the single-handed care team, their ability to share their specialist skills and knowledge with partner organisation staff at NHFT to achieve potentially greater outcomes for people and their rehabilitation journey at Turn Furlong.

People were supported to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. One person told us, “I need to drink more water, so I started to have system where I count cups of water”.

Staff supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support. One person told us,” I would say that support and medical help I received was very good, with the weekly Physio”.

Therapy staff worked with people to improve their functional abilities for example, showering, walking, and transferring from their wheelchair to their bed or another piece of equipment. Therapists involved care staff in these sessions to ensure they were confident about the techniques being used so they could be continued as part of people’s day-to-day care.

People were supported to attend routine appointments with the dentist and optician to maintain their health and wellbeing.

People told us how the holistic and therapeutic approach to monitoring their care helped them achieve positive outcomes. One person told us, “I cannot fault the staff. I call them my angels. I was so weak and with no strength when I came from hospital, [staff] helped me getting better, the [staff] are my angels”.

A relative commented, “My relative is really doing well since [they] moved out from hospital. We [the family] are extremely pleased that our [relative] was moved to [Turn Furlong]. Hospital was no good place at all, very noisy and no privacy”.

The provider monitored all people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. Staff worked hard to ensure outcomes were positive and consistent, and fully met clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves.

Staff held regular and effective MDT meetings to discuss people and improve their care. Staff told us they used these meetings to review the progress people had made towards meeting their goals and to formulate different approaches if progress was not being made.

People were told about their rights around consent and staff respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment to them.

Staff understood the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and supported people to make informed decisions about their care and treatment.

Staff were skilled in how they obtained people’s consent, involving them in decisions even where language, disability or other impairments made this difficult. Therapy staff told us they spent time with people to get to know them and to understand how they communicated. They understood this was not through language alone and that some people communicated, for example, through eye movements, nods, and gestures. Where people declined support, staff respected that decision but discussed it with people to ensure their immediate needs were met. Where people had made decisions with risk, the provider worked with people to mitigate those risks.

Staff understood how and when to formally assess whether people had the capacity to make decisions about their care and treatment. When people could not give consent, staff made decisions in their best interest, considering people’s wishes, culture and traditions.