Heartly Green

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

Caring – this means we looked for evidence that the provider involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has changed to requires improvement. This meant people did not always feel well-supported, cared for or treated with dignity and respect.

This service scored 55 (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 always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion, or respected their privacy and dignity.

People and relatives told us staff were caring, and we observed staff to be polite, friendly and welcoming. A relative said, “There’s a core of staff who have been here for years; they are supportive and caring. It’s a stable team.” Another relative said, “The staff are really good; they are really good to mum too and invited her in to have lunch with dad a number of times.”

Staff were kind and very willing to talk with inspectors and help as needed. People responded positively to staff approach and the atmosphere within the home supported people’s wellbeing. The inspection team noted people were well-dressed, clean and presentable.

The provider did not always treat people as individuals or make sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They did not always take account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Whilst staff did their best to treat people as individuals there were times when this did not happen, mainly during peak times when a number of people needed help or support. The expert by experience noted a calm and peaceful mealtime experience, but this wasn’t the case on all units. Clothes protectors were not always offered, and we saw support offered to people was not always person-centred.

We observed a member of staff supporting several people to eat meals whilst standing over them. Each person was helped a little and then they moved on to the next person. The dining experience was not consistently good across all units; it felt rushed on occasions. We observed multiple distractions on 2 units from loud televisions in lounges and a radio on in the kitchen at lunch time; the dining experiences we observed were not always calm or relaxing for people.

The provider did not always promote people’s independence, so people did not always know their rights and have choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

There was a range of activities taking place at the home and we observed people participating in multiple activities on our first day of inspection. On the other 2 days of inspection however, there were no members of the activity team on duty, and it was a different atmosphere in the home.

The team of activity co-ordinators were recognised for their efforts in the home, however in their absence organised activity provision was extremely limited. Care staff were busy undertaking support roles and did not have the opportunity or time to co-ordinate activities; there was no backfill of activities staff to address this. We saw people spending time in their bedrooms, but we weren’t sure if this was always their preference. One person told us, “I like the carers, but I would like to go outside more."

People who were independently mobile could access other areas of the home, such as the garden but others who relied on help from staff did not get the chance, due to their limited availability. In conversations with us many people and relatives considered staffing levels were insufficient at times, particularly during the night.

Visitors were seen coming and going throughout the day. We identified no issues with people having access to visitors. Some relatives visited and offered vital mealtime support to their loved ones as this was their choice.

The provider did not always listen to and understand people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff did not always respond to people’s needs in the moment or act to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

People had to wait on occasions, especially if they required more than 1 member of staff for help and support with personal care. During a lunch time service, we passed a person in their room calling for help and requesting a tissue. As the 2 members of staff allocated to the unit were busy serving lunch and helping others at this time, the inspector was able to provide the person with a serviette. No other staff were made available during busy meal times to check on or assist people who chose to stay in their rooms, resulting in delays in responding to people's needs. We did see staff respond promptly and with kindness on other occasions when people called out from their bedrooms or needed additional support with tasks.

People chose to spend time in their bedrooms, and we were told this was their preference, although as it wasn’t always recorded within care plans, we were not assured this was the case. On the days when there was no activity co-ordinator presence, staff could not organise and support people to participate in activities and socialise, as they did not have the time.

The provider did not always care about and promote the wellbeing of their staff. They did not always support or enable staff to deliver person-centred care.

Staff we spoke with felt supported by management in their roles however, the wellbeing of staff was not fully reflected within processes that were in place, such as supervisions. We saw examples of staff voicing concerns within supervisions, for example about working patterns, colleagues or rotas. Whilst we were told these had been followed up and resolved there was no formal record in subsequent supervisions whether staff felt better or more confident going forward with the actions that had been taken.