Archived: Lower Bowshaw View Nursing Home

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 requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has remained requires improvement. This meant people did not always feel well-supported, cared for or treated with dignity and respect.

This service scored 50 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

Staff and leaders treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. We observed staff interacting with people and found them to be kind and caring. People told us staff were kind and caring. One person said, “I have got an upset stomach, and I keep having accidents. When they come in to clean me up, they don’t make me feel bad about it they are very kind.” One relative said, “We are really happy with the care [name of family member] gets here. We have no complaints at all.”

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.‘This is me’ documents were being introduced to help staff have a better understanding about people. We observed staff knocking on people’s bedroom doors. Staff appeared to know people well and knew their likes and dislikes. People had access to an activity coordinator who arranged and carried out a range of activities for people to enjoy. One person said, “This is much better than the last place. It’s a much nicer place.” A relative said, “They [staff] are really good here they always keep us informed if there is anything happening with [name].” However, one professional said, “I often see the residential clients having support from the activities co-ordinator with such as armchair aerobics, quizzes, bingo etc, ensuring they are stimulated; however, I have never seen this happening with any of the nursing residents.” 

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. Delays in people accessing opticians and dental care presented a risk of them not being socially isolated and unable to participate in social events they enjoyed. People told us they were involved in decisions about their life. One person said, “I go to bed and get up when they tell me but that’s ok, I don’t mind that.” Another person said, “I am able to get up and go to bed myself, I decide what I want.” Another person commented, “Nobody tells me what to do.”

The provider did not listen to or understand people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff did not respond to people’s needs in the moment or act to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.At our last assessment we found people’s care plans did not reflect their current needs; we found contradicting information and a lack of detailed risk assessments. At this assessment we found some care plans had improved, but there were still some issues. There was lack of effective systems in place to ensure staff had the skills, knowledge and support to meet people’s needs. This was being developed at the time of our visit; however, this had been identified previously so had not been embedded into practice or sustained by the provider. People told us the staff were good and looked after them well. One person said, “When I fell, they [staff] came and helped me straight away. They checked me over and got me the attention I needed, they [staff] were very good.” However, the lack of detailed care plans and risk assessments put people at risk of harm.

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 had access to a staff handbook and policies and procedures. However, the provider did not always keep to their commitment to support staff. For example, the staff handbook had a section about supervision and stated the provider was committed to providing regular staff supervision. We found staff had not received regular supervision.