Heathlands Residential 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 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People told us staff were kind and caring, one person told us, “I sent a Christmas card to all the staff members and received one back from all of them”. Staff took the time to listen and engage in conversation with people and treated them with kindness, empathy and compassion. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. People told us staff were kind and caring, one person told us, “I sent a Christmas card to all the staff members and received one back from all of 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. One person expressed how they liked to get ready for bed and watch television before getting in to bed, they said staff assisted with this and respected their wishes. People were mostly able to choose how they spend their time. An activity schedule was in place and was updated weekly. We observed people taking part in a quiz with staff members, although not all people were encouraged to take part. We fed this back to the provider to review.

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

People were offered choices about what they wished to eat and drink. Show plates were used at times to help people with dementia. One person was supported to go out in the local community to enjoy cafes and shopping independently. Staff supported people to have as much autonomy as possible. For example, a staff member told us “I always ask people what they want to wear when assisting them with getting ready”. Staff ensured people's independence was promoted by ensuring they referred people to the district nurse when they needed equipment. A relative told us staff had referred their family member for a walking aid, and this had played a pivotal role in enhancing their mobility.

We received mixed reviews from people about the activities available to them. One person told us, “There are lots of activities, recently we went to see some ponies and I go to mass every Sunday”. Another person said, “The activity sheet doesn’t interest me at all, scrabble and all that. I used to think it wasn’t fair not to join in but now I don’t want to, and they [staff] don’t bother me”.

The provider listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs; however, we did observe call bells ringing out for long periods of time in some cases. One person told us, “The buzzers are rather loud. It varies so much (response time), it can be 3 minutes or 10 minutes.” We discussed this with the manager who agreed further analysis of this was required and they would undertake this.

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to deliver person-centred care. The manager facilitated and offered support to a staff member to continue with their apprenticeship. The provider had an employee assistance scheme in place to support staff.