Oakwood Acquired Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service

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 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 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 positive and kind interactions between people and staff throughout the inspection. We noted most staff knew people and had an understanding of their needs. The feedback we received from relatives was mixed. One relative commented, “[Care], it’s inconsistent, it depends on the staff member. [Family member] has had some excellent interactions.” Another relative commented, “I am made to feel welcome; some staff have been a support to me. I feel I can approach them.”

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.

People fed back they were well treated and had care delivered as they wanted. Families feedback indicated there were some concerns around the consistency of approach, particular with the use of frequent agency staff. One relative commented, “Staff do understand his needs and meet his needs. There are both good levels of input and not so good input. There is a bit of inconsistency; some staff do the bare minimum; some staff work hard.” Staff generally appeared to understand people’s individual needs, and work was ongoing to ensure care plans were detailed and personalised.

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

People told us, and we observed, that staff generally promoted and respected people’s choices. It was not always evident that people were encouraged to become as independent as possible, particularly in relation to preparing meals and drinks. The therapy team provided a range of interventions to support independence, including improving people’s mobility and supporting cognitive functioning. Feedback from people and families indicated the use of agency had created some shortfalls in care with one relative commenting, “[Family member] has good interactions; the way they care, they are encouraged to come out of their room and out in the community, equally there are staff who are being dismissive of them and not spending much time with them.”

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.

People generally felt their needs were listened and responded to and noted improvements from a more consistent team of staff being established. One person told us, “They have had a lot of new staff, it’s not been as organised. They are all nice though.”

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

Staff were generally happy in their role and felt as a team they worked together well and supported each other. One staff member commented, “Most things are going well. I feel that we work quite well as a team. I do feel supported although I have not had a one to one supervision recently.” At the time of our inspection there was no registered manager, but a deputy manager had recently started in post who, together with the interim manager, were addressing matters of staff support.