Medway House

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.

This service scored 70 (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 witnessed good interactions between people and staff. People appeared relaxed in the company of staff who spoke to them with kindness. People also fedback that staff treated them with kindness, dignity and respect. A person we spoke with said, “The manager is very good they are very helpful.”

Another person we spoke with said, “The staff are great here it’s a great place to live they treat us well.”

Relatives told us they were happy with how their loved ones were cared for.One relative told us, “They treat [person] very well and bring [person] to see me which is wonderful.”

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

Care plans contained information about people’s protected characteristics, including cultural, social and religious needs.

People told us they were treated like individuals. They felt staff understood how to care for them in line with their needs and preferences.

Staff had received training in equality, diversity and inclusion and demonstrated an understanding of the importance of respecting people's individual needs and preferences.

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.

People were not always supported to have meaningful choice and control over how they lived their lives. Whilst staff knew people well and supported them with their day-to-day needs, opportunities for people to make decisions about their social lives and leisure activities were limited.

We found people did not routinely have opportunities to choose to go out during the evening. People were not always supported to access community activities, social events or pursue personal interests at times that reflected their preferences. This reduced assurance that people were being supported to live full and active lives and exercise choice over how they spent their time outside of the home. One person’s care plan read how they liked music and playing the guitar, this was not explored further with them.

One relative we spoke with said, “[person] loves music, support with activities like this would help them, I would say activities are lacking.”

However, people were able to move freely around the home and access all areas available to them. People went out locally to the shops on their own or supported by staff.

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.

Systems were in place to ensure people had the support from staff they needed when they needed it. We observed staff being responsive to people’s moods and anxieties and changing their care as a result.

People were supported to health appointments and managers and staff worked with people and health professionals to address health needs.

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

Supervisions were held on a regular basis where staff could openly discuss their wellbeing and their work to enable them to carry out their roles effectively.

A member of staff told us, “If we have any concerns, we can always speak to the manager in our supervisions or see them.”

Staff felt valued by the manager and their colleagues. They had a sense of belonging and felt they had the ability to contribute to decision making.