Falcon House 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 Requires Improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to 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.

The culture within the service was significantly improved, with a staff team who exhibited kindness and compassion. People and their relatives gave positive feedback regarding the staff and their approach. One relative told us, “Since the new management have come in, the whole place has changed. Staff interact with the residents, and the new activities person brings in lots of new activities to do, this never happened before.” Another relative explained, “We see such kind interactions between staff and residents, they do not respond negatively when people get upset.” A regular visitor told us they had noted the improvements, they told us, “Staff gently interact with people now, they are not ignored. It’s positive for [Name] that he is interacting with people who are fond of him and like him.”

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 were in the process of being reviewed with people and their relatives, to ensure personalised details were included on people’s life history, goals and aspirations. Those records which had been completed were detailed and personalised. The care provided was individualised as staff knew people well, despite gaps in care plans and risk assessments. People and their relatives told us there was a range of tailored activity provision in place, and staff understood people and their interests.

One relative told us, “It suits my family member very well. The staff are very capable and caring. There are plenty of activities, a good variety, with the new activities’ person. People are taken out of the home now.” Another relative said, “My family member likes going out and has been to the local coffee shop and the church and the pantomime is soon. I really like the exercises they do in their chairs. They are doing their best for residents to keep them fit and active.”

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

Where previously we found poor practice in ensuring people were given choices, people and their relatives felt the service respected people’s wishes and feelings. Although we observed some ‘task orientated’ parts of the mealtime experience which could be improved upon. We raised this with the management team, who addressed this with the staff team.

One relative told us, “[Name] can get up early and go to bed early or sleep in if they want. They have a nice room downstairs, and we have found the management much more approachable. There is a huge improvement in communication.” Another visitor told us, “[Name] is a bright person and desperately needed to do more as they were bored stiff. This has changed significantly since the last inspection. Activity levels have increased due to the activity coordinator. They organise lots of activities and there are a lot more interactions between residents now. They regularly take a lot of people out of the home and I have bumped into them outside in Beeston.”

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 and their relatives described feeling more confident in the responsiveness of the service, through improved communication with the management team. One relative told us, “There is good communication. They found my family member with unexplained bruising and thought it was an unwitnessed fall. They observed [Name] for 24 hours and checked them over. They put in a sensor mat and have since identified that [Name] moves around a lot at night.”

We saw staff responded with a calm, kind approach if people became distressed or anxious. One regular visitor told us, “People were previously bored and often shouting, it is now much more peaceful and calmer.” Where people required assistance with equipment for transferring, we saw staff were calm, patient and spoke kindly with people, explaining the process.

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

Staff we spoke with told us of the positive changes within the service and explained they now felt more supported and involved. Addressing the previous poor culture was a priority for the management team, and the changes made had led to a notable improvement.

Staff were now being supported to progress and learn new systems. Where staff had been identified as having knowledge and skills in specific areas, we saw evidence of promotion opportunities within the service. One staff member we spoke with described the changes as, “Marvellous. Things are getting better. The management are very approachable. Handovers have improved. It used to just be 'they are fine', now we are getting more information.”

We saw the management team thanked staff for their hard work and acknowledged their challenges, during the daily handover meeting. This showed a more involved and positive approach from the management team. We saw from staff meeting minutes, these were now being held frequently and gave staff the opportunity to share their views and feel listened to.