Sahara Gardens

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 good. At this assessment the rating has remained 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. People’s needs were assessed, and care plans updated accordingly to reflect the changes to support people required. For example, people had goals to learn new skills and explore more leisure activities which were updated when completed. Staff we spoke with told us how people’s needs were discussed in team meetings. One staff member told us, “We talk about people in our team meetings to discuss anything that changes. If we notice anything, particularly about risk we talk with the manager who will update the plans to record the changes, we have seen.” All assessments including those in relation to risk were reviewed every 6 months.

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them. The service worked with professionals to ensure people had access to equipment such as wheelchairs and walking aids which kept them independent. Staff received training which followed legislation and current best practice in supporting people with learning disabilities and autistic people. People with specific health conditions were regularly reviewed by health care professionals. These included people requiring the support of physiotherapist, occupational therapists and psychologists.

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. Staff were familiar with health services which people needed and knew how to access them. At the time of our inspection the service had been managing a complex health situation for one person which involved, GP, hospital and other acute care services. They were able to do this successfully which resulted in the person making a good recovery over the period of our visits. As part of our inspection, we spoke with a health care professional involved with the service. They told us, “Based on my observations, the service is able to meet people’s needs and things are dealt with in a timely professional manner.”

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives. People were given choice over what they ate. Meetings were held every week to talk about what people wanted as part of their weekly menu plans and were supported using photographs to choose what they ate. The provider promoted people’s right to eat what they wanted whilst facilitating information sessions about how to eat healthily. People were supported to be active and were encouraged to participate in activities in their community. For example, people were involved in a voluntary scheme to help maintain their local community garden.

The provider told us how they had supported people to access health care screening programmes to help detect diseases. For example, people had recently participated in a bowel cancer screening programme. The manager told us about the meticulous planning involved and how with patience and persistence were able to ensure all those eligible for the screening were able to take part.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. Outcomes were positive and consistent, meeting people’s needs as well as their wishes. The provider’s care planning system made it easy for staff to monitor people’s health and there were records kept for each person about health appointments with details of treatments and follow up appointments with health services aimed at achieving the right outcomes. Through consistent monitoring and knowledge about people’s health staff were able to detect changes and seek the correct help. For example, the manager told us how they were able to detect sudden changes to one person’s health who was not able to tell staff they were ill. The manager told us, “We knew the person wasn’t right, we noticed their lack of appetite, so we sought the advice of the GP straight away.”

The provider told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment. Staff told us the ways in which they gained people’s consent to do everyday tasks. A staff member told us, “We discuss with people about the things they want, and we give people the opportunity to change their minds if they want to. We have got to know the people over many years; we know about what they really like and the choices they are likely to make so we can offer them things we know they like as well as other things. This covers lots of things such as what to wear, where to go and what to eat.”

Where consent was not always easy to obtain from people, the provider worked closely with families and a professional advocate to help people make important decisions about their care. People’s mental capacity was assessed about day-to-day decisions and bigger decisions affecting their lives such as their health. Where people needed support to make decisions, the provider involved other people such as families and health care professionals to help the person decide.