Albany House - Bognor Regis

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• 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 outstanding. At this assessment the rating has changed to good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect. Care was not always well personalised to support independence and choice.

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.

People were consistent in their positive view of staff kindness and respect. People told us, “The staff are all nice,” “The staff are friendly and helpful,” and “They are all very good, kind and caring, they will do anything to help you.” A relative told us, “The staff are very good at listening and very kind.”

People said their privacy was respected, one person said, “I like it that I can lock my door.” We observed staff knocking on people’s doors and waiting for a response before entering.

A health care professional told us they believed staff always treated people with “the utmost respect and care.”

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.

Some people had learning disabilities and /or autism but the provider had not given due consideration to providing care and support in line with Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture (RS RC RC). Functional assessments had not been completed to identify people’s strengths and abilities.

Some care plans lacked detail and did not always provide guidance for staff in how to meet individual needs and preferences. For example, one person communicated their emotions through distressed behaviour. Staff told us how they used distraction techniques to support the person to be calm, however there was no clear positive behaviour support plan for staff to follow. This meant possible triggers were not identified and recorded, and there was a lack of strategies for staff to support the person with their emotional needs.

People’s aspirations were not always supported with clear plans to support how they would meet their goals by building on the skills they already had. For example, some people told us they used to enjoy cooking, but opportunities were not available to them because they were not allowed into the kitchen.

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.

Not everyone was supported to remain independent or to improve their independence. People’s care plans included limited opportunities for maintaining or developing skills. Some people told us they liked to do their own laundry and staff supported them with this task and with washing up. However, there was a lack of structured individualised programmes to support people to learn new skills. Some people had expressed a desire for paid or voluntary work but there was no plan in place to support these aspirations or develop skills they might need to work towards these goals.

Some people were able to access the community independently but told us they were restricted by certain “house rules”, including being back at the service by 8.45pm in the evening. One person said, “Everyone has to be in by 9pm.” They told us they would need to seek permission from staff to be out later than this. Another person told us they were not able to have their last cigarette at the time they would prefer because they were not supposed to be in the garden after 9pm at night. Staff said these restrictions were in place to support people’s safety and for security reasons, but this did not support people to have maximum choice and control and maintain their independence.

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

There were enough staff on duty to respond to people’s needs. People told us they were well supported by staff. One person said, “They (staff) are always there for us.” Another person described being able to seek support from staff when they needed to. They comments were, “The staff are very approachable, I can talk about anything, at any time, day or night.” Our observations were that staff had time to sit and talk with people. Some staff were supporting people with art activities and there was a calm atmosphere, people appeared comfortable and relaxed in their presence.

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to deliver person-centred care.

Staff were consistent in their positive view of the service. They told us they were well supported with regular opportunities to express their opinions or raise any concerns. One staff member told us, “It’s a small team and we are very supportive of each other.” Another staff member said, “All the staff are lovely, I have been very well supported, and I am very happy to be working here.”

Staff were receiving regular supervision and yearly appraisals in line with the provider’s policy. Staff told us there were effective systems to ensure staffing levels were monitored. They said this meant they could spend time supporting people without feeling rushed. People confirmed there were enough staff on duty to support them and described a positive atmosphere, one person said, “The staff always seem pleased to be here.”