Eagle House Residential Care Home

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – this means we looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture. This is the first assessment for this newly registered service. This key question has been rated good. This meant the service was consistently managed and well-led. Leaders and the culture they created promoted high-quality, person-centred care.

This service scored 82 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider had a shared vision, strategy and culture. This was based on transparency, equity, equality and human rights, diversity and inclusion, engagement, and understanding challenges and the needs of people and their communities. The registered managers and staff team were passionate about ensuring high quality care was provided.

There was good leadership in place at both manager and provider level that created an open and positive culture of valuing people, respect and innovation. This was observed in practice by a staff team who were aware of and shared the provider’s values in relation to respect, equality and treating people as individuals. People and staff were involved in discussions and decisions about strategy and culture and how these impacted their lives.

The provider had inclusive leaders at all levels who understood the context in which they delivered care, treatment and support and embodied the culture and values of their workforce and organisation. Leaders had the skills, knowledge, experience and credibility to lead effectively. They did so with integrity, openness and honesty. Staff told us they were well supported and leaders were considerate of any personal issues that might temporarily impact their work and offered various assistance and support as required.

The provider fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard. Staff had opportunities to speak up both formally and informally and all felt happy to make suggestions for improving care as well as raising any concerns. One person told us, “We love a get together and group chat just like the one today. We didn’t want karaoke, so we sat around and talked about anything and everything.” Another person said, “We can go to residents’ meetings to talk about any concerns.” Relatives were also happy they could speak up at any time. One relative told us, “I’ve got the phone numbers of the registered managers if I want to speak to them, but we’ve no concerns.”

The registered managers encouraged feedback regularly through meetings, surveys and suggestions as well as formal complaints and compliments procedures. They knew people and staff well and fostered an open-door policy.

The provider valued diversity in their workforce. They worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who worked for them. Staff felt there was no discrimination at the service and staff were treated fairly and equally in terms of their job role and pay. The registered managers encouraged learning of other cultures to promote tolerance and acceptance. All received diversity but the registered managers arranged for some staff to have additional training to enable them to act as equality and diversity champions. The champions conducted monthly audits with staff and regular staff surveys to gain feedback about what was working or could be improved. This then fed into action plans for change. The champions kept up to date on best practice and shared information with people and staff to foster a positive culture. They did this through sharing written information but also by holding cultural food nights with people and implementing a buddy/mentor system for new staff to ensure good support and inclusion.

The provider had clear responsibilities, roles, systems of accountability and good governance. They used these to manage and deliver high-quality, sustainable care, treatment and support. They always acted on the best information about risk, performance and outcomes, and shared this securely with others when appropriate. They had excellent quality audit tools in place at both registered manager and provider level. Audits were tailored to elicit specific information on topic areas that was meaningful and made a real life impact to the quality of people’s lives.

Provider audits were mostly based on in-depth conversations with people and staff on topics related to best practice and regulation. The registered managers and staff team were extremely open and honest about what worked and what they planned to improve based upon audit findings and feedback. Action plans were in place and regularly monitored and updated.

The registered managers and staff team had a very good understanding of their roles and regulation. They fully understood what the principles of CQC’s Right support, right care, right culture policy looked like in practice and worked hard to promote those values and people’s rights. People were fully involved as equal partners in all decision making and developments of the service.

Professionals also spoke highly about all aspects of care and staff practice. One professional told us, “I have always found Eagle House to have effective and robust policies and procedures in place. I have not identified any concerns in relation to safeguarding, medication, communication, IPC, risk assessment or care planning.Their electronic care planning system seems very intuitive and well organised, providing quick access to the up-to-date information.The registered managers are always very approachable and happy to provide any information I have requested."

The provider clearly understood and carried out their duty to collaborate and worked in partnership, and services worked seamlessly for people. They always shared information and learning with partners and collaborated for improvement. There was excellent partnership working with a variety of external professionals who knew the service and staff well giving very positive feedback. People had been supported to work with local teams of external professionals to find ways of improving inclusion in communities. This had led to a person winning a group award at the annual Lincolnshire awards for partnership working. Two staff members had also won awards for similar reasons.

Such good partnership working meant care was personalised, barriers to good care could be overcome and the risk of closed cultures and discrimination for people with protected characteristics could be reduced. One professional told us, “Staff are very responsive to queries or concerns that I have raised and ensure that appropriate safeguarding actions are completed quickly when needed. They support me in visits when I need to complete Mental Capacity assessments and best Interest meetings and ensure that service users have access to an advocate when needed. They have challenged me to ensure that I am doing all I can to support people as well, which helps us all to support people in the best way possible.” Another professional said, “Senior members of the team especially the registered managers, always let me know if there are issues or anything I can support with and are keen to work in a multi-disciplinary team approach for people’s benefit. I would definitely recommend Eagle House for anyone who has issues with their mental health. There are often no vacancies, which I believe says a lot about how good the home is."

The provider focused on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation and local system. They encouraged creative ways of delivering equality of experience, outcome and quality of life for people. They actively contributed to safe, effective practice and research. The registered managers promoted continuous learning as key and staff were supported to develop their skills and qualifications to continually improve the quality of care provided. Various champion roles were in place to further support staff to work together well and keep updated on the latest best practice. This helped to ensure people were supported in a way that helped them move forward with a positive outlook for their futures.