Alexandra Nursing Home - Poulton-le-Fylde

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 remained good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

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This service scored 65 (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 and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

We observed staff talking to people in a respectful way and had encouraging and caring interactions, which had a positive effect on people. One person told us, “They are very caring people.” A relative commented, “They are caring. [family member] does have his favourites.”

We observed a person in distress, staff listened and acknowledged what they were saying. They used strategies of humour, the offer of a cup of tea or changed the subject to the person’s favourite topics to de-escalate the situation and promote their dignity.

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met their needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

We observed multiple examples of staff offering people choices, respecting their decisions and tailoring their support around their choices. People received preferred foods, that were not on the menu. Staff entered the reality of the people they were supporting. They engaged in conversations with them and their toys which people found comforting.

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

There was no restriction on visiting and relatives told us they were able to visit at any time. One person told us, “My partner comes in every day, and he always brings my dog in too.” One relative commented, “I am here every day and stay all day and never had a problem.”

The provider valued relationships people had with family and friends. They organised and catered for birthday parties and arranged private meals for couples with the activities co-ordinator acting as their waiter. We observed 1 person concentrating on their task of cleaning Lego blocks. A staff member sat with them, engaged in the task and offered encouragement and praise. One person told us, “I am aware of the activities, and it is our choice if we join in. I have never had pressure put on me to join in, but it is good to get involved not just sitting there all day and all night.”

The provider listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff mostly responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

We observed people were responded to straight away when they requested support. Staff noticed when people were becoming upset and offered reassurance and support. They knew the right things to say or do or provided a cup of tea to make people happier. However, 1 person on 2 occasions after pressing their call bell had to wait a significant amount of time before staff responded. Not answering a call bell could put people at risk of avoidable harm and not having their needs met.

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

Staff on 1 community stated their workload was not always manageable. One staff member told us, “Sometimes I just want to walk out, it’s very stressful. When we are fully staffed it works like clockwork.”

However, staff spoke positively of the support they had received from their community managers. Two staff members praised their manager for supporting their career development. Other comments included, “I cannot fault management. When I go to [community manager] it gets sorted. And, [Community manager] is lovely, lovely. She is the reason most of us are here. She works with staff. She listens to staff.”

The provider had recently introduced a new induction process. It included a ‘hearts and soul’ day to build positive relationships, and new staff were allocated a mentor to support them.