Heathgrove Lodge Care Home

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 saw staff treat people with kindness and dignity. When a person living with dementia began to undress in the lounge a member of staff quickly responded without any fuss and reassured the person in a gentle way it was ok. We also saw staff speaking in gentle tones to other people. People told us staff were kind and caring, one person said, “The staff are lovely to me.” Another person said, “The staff are really lovely, sometimes I get a hug in the morning from the carer.” A further person said, “(Staff) are nice to me and they look after me.”

The provider treated people as individuals in relation to making sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. But they did not always take account of people’s aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

People’s care needs were tailored to them as individuals, we saw this in their care plans and people said this happened in practice. However, work had not been completed to look at people’s backgrounds and what was important to them before they moved to the home and had dementia. We found people’s cultural needs were not being considered in relation to food and the social events provided. The provider and manager needed to take the initiative here. There was a potential risk of these needs not being met as people may not be able to raise these issues themselves. The provider and manager told us this work would happen moving forward following our feedback and assessment.

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

A person went out routinely with family and friends to the local area, the manager and staff supported this to ensure it happened, because it was important to this person. The manager had identified they needed to do more to support others to go out, especially as some had lived in the area for many years. The manager talked us through their plans to make this happen. The provider supported this initiative.

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

One person needed support to fulfil a lifestyle choice, staff told us how they were aware of this and how they would support this person to do this, when they wanted to. We saw this and other examples of staff responding to people’s immediate care needs. Call bells and sensor alerts were also responded to quickly. One person told us, “(Staff) come in the middle of the night if I need them.”

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff.

The staff spoke well of all the managers who have managed the service over the last 2 years. Most staff had worked for the provider for many years and felt secure working for them. Staff also spoke well of the new manager they felt supported as people and employees. One member of staff said, “I love my residents, this job you have to love it, you don’t get a lot of pay, but it makes you feel good.”