The Orchard Care Home

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. At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to 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.

The provider made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

Since our last assessment the provider had made improvements to their care planning process. Care records were now more detailed and contained specific information about people’s health conditions that could affect their day-to-day health. This also included mental health conditions and learning disabilities.

Where conditions were identified, care plans and risk assessments were now in place that provided staff with sufficient information and guidance to provide effective care. This included detailed care and support plans for people with a learning disability such as Autism. All the relatives we spoke with told us; their relatives were fully involved in planning their care. This ensured people’s care was aligned with their needs and wishes.

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards. Staff supported people in line with current guidance to ensure peoples’ care and treatment remained effective. For example, all people were supported to attend an annual health check with their named doctor. This meant staff supported people to address any concerns with specific areas of their health. Staff received specific training in supporting people with a learning disability and specialist Autism training. This training helps staff provide safer and more effective care and is in line with current legislation.

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services.

Staff knew people very well, we found care plans now contained clear details on people’s health needs. Staff told us care plans were updated regularly to reflect any changes. Each person had a document in place that was taken with them should they need to visit a hospital or other health care service. Within this document details of the person’s health conditions, their medicines and their food preferences were recorded. We also saw guidance was provided for staff on how best to communicate with the person and what things could cause the person to become distressed. This process ensured staff who were not familiar with the person had all relevant information to enable a smooth transition of the provision of care.

We did not look at Supporting people to live healthier lives during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.

We did not look at Monitoring and improving outcomes during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.

The provider told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.

People were supported to make choices about their day and night routines, with these preferences clearly recorded in their care plans. Care and support records contained examples of people agreeing to and signing their care records, or an appropriate person such as an agreed relative, legal appointee or advocate contributing to decisions. Staff told us they empowered people to make their own choices to ensure they live fulfilled lives. A staff member said, “There is a great sense of inclusivity and person-centred care for people. They are always involved with any decision making.” A relative we spoke with also said, “My [relative] makes their own choices, staff help and encourage them.”

We checked whether the service was working within the principles of the MCA, whether appropriate legal authorisations were in place when needed to deprive a person of their liberty, and whether any conditions relating to those authorisations were being met. We found the service was working within the principles of the MCA and if needed, appropriate legal authorisations were in place to deprive a person of their liberty. Staff supported people to make their own decisions following legislation, staff used alternative methods of communication such as using props when supporting people to make decisions. For example, when discussing medicines, staff used medicine boxes to provide information to people. Props and visual aids can aid peoples understanding and reinforces conversations. This practice helps ensure decisions were truly informed.