Archived: Sycamore Lodge Nursing Home

We spoke with a relative. They told us they were kept informed and involved in reviewing their family member's care. They also told us they had been given some information about the Mental Capacity Act 2005. They told us their family member received good care that met their needs. They said, "They look after [family member] well' and 'Staff understand [family member's] needs.'

We used our SOFI (Short Observational Framework for Inspection) tool during the visit. The SOFI tool allows us to spend time watching what is going on in a service and helps us to record how people spend their time, the type of support they get and whether they have positive experiences. We conducted a SOFI observation in the dining room for 25 minutes at lunchtime. We saw staff communicated in a respectful way with people using the service, asked them about their preferences and did not act against their wishes. We saw that people who needed one to one support received this. Other people also received appropriate support.

A relative told us they had no concerns regarding the medication arrangements for their family member and their family member received their medication on time.

We found there were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet people's needs.

We also found that people were made aware of the complaints system.

We spent 35 minutes in the dining room at lunchtime and used a specific way of observing care to help to understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. During this time, we saw that staff respected people's dignity and provided appropriate support.

Relatives we spoke with told us they felt their relatives were safe and their belongings and finances were protected. They told us the building was kept clean and was well equipped and they had no safety concerns. One relative said, 'It's clean and safe.'

Relatives told us they felt staff were well trained and good at their jobs. We found staff were supported to deliver care to an appropriate standard.

Relatives told us they felt listened to and had received survey forms to complete to provide their views on the service. We found there were effective systems in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of service that people received.