Westerley Residential Care Home for the Elderly - Westcliff-on-Sea

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• 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. At our last inspection we rated this key question requires improvement. At this inspection the rating has changed to 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 68 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service had a shared vision, strategy and culture. This was based on transparency, equity, equality and human rights, diversity and inclusion. The service focussed on staff engagement with people and their communities gaining an understanding of their needs. The registered manager told us that recent inspections had supported learning and driven improvement within the service. The registered manager told us, “I have learnt a lot from the recent inspections, and we have changed a lot of our processes to ensure they are more robust, and we now have effective and efficient systems in place.” The management had clear values and had developed a listening culture where staff felt they were available for them to talk to.

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. The service focused on engagement with people and their communities gaining an understanding of their needs. The registered manager told us, “We have worked through the action plan to ensure we have met all previous actions. I have created a lessons learned spreadsheet to capture learning and support continuous improvement.” The management had clear values and had developed a listening culture where staff felt they were available for them to talk to.
There was a clear staffing structure in place with a deputy manager, 2 assistant managers and 2 senior carers managing the day to day running of the service.
A relative told us, “I do think the home is managed well. It isn’t just the managers, the seniors and the assistant manager are also very good, they are all very good.” However, a relative told us, “The service is managed well however at times I feel they are unapproachable and other people get blamed, we basically get dismissed. I would just appreciate being told an issue will get sorted.”
 

The service fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard. The registered manager had a policy and processes for staff to follow on ‘whistle blowing.’ 
The registered manager also held regular discussions with people to share their thoughts about how the service was ran and to discuss the support they received and if any improvements could be made. A member of staff told us, “We have regular meetings and supervisions with the manager which is a good opportunity for us to discuss anything with them.”
We reviewed staff meeting minutes and saw they included information about the service as well as reminders about training, staff rota’s, safeguarding, incidents and PPE. The registered manager also held regular discussions with people to share their thoughts about how the service was ran and to discuss the support they received and if any improvements could be made. A member of staff told us, “We have regular meetings and supervisions with the manager which is a good opportunity for us to discuss anything with them.”
 

The service valued diversity in their workforce. The service worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who worked for them. There was a policy in place to protect staff from harassment and bullying and a focus on protected characteristics under the Equality Act. The registered manager had developed an inclusive workforce and recognised the value of diversity amongst the team. The registered manager told us, “We have ensured that all staff have completed equality and inclusion training as mandatory training.
We include equality and inclusion into our supervision; we recently arranged a staff culture day where the staff brought different foods to try from their culture.”
 

The service did not always have clear responsibilities, roles, systems of accountability and good governance. The registered manager told us, “We have improved systems and processes in regard to training, supervision, recruitment, induction and fire safety. It seems it has made the staff team a lot more proactive including the Management. We have created new lessons learnt logs and changed our auditing processes. We have implemented new recruitment processes and documentation.”
The management had given staff a clear direction of their vision for the service. Staff understood their role and contribution in sustaining improvements.
However, although audits were regularly completed by the deputy manager, these were not always being formally signed off by the registered manager. This reduced assurance that oversight arrangements were consistently effective.
In addition, the ratings certificate from the previous inspection was not displayed within the service at the time of our inspection. The registered manager acknowledged this and told us it would be addressed promptly.
 

The service understood their duty to collaborate and work in partnership, so services worked seamlessly for people. They shared information and learning with partners and collaborated for improvement. The management had developed good links and worked closely with health professionals. This included GPs, district nurses, occupational therapists and social workers. Managers had worked closely and transparently with the local authority quality improvement team to work through identified actions and make improvements at the service.

The provider did not always focus on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation and local system. The management was actively supporting staff with learning and innovative ways of working at the service.
However, despite the positive focus on learning and improvement, we identified issues including areas for improvement within the environment, how people were involved in managing risks and audits during the inspection. This meant that although improvements were being made, further work was needed to ensure learning and service development were consistently embedded across all areas of practice.