Ballater 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 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.

Staff interacted with people in a kind and caring way. This included acknowledging people as they walked past, and getting to people’s eye level when speaking to them rather than standing over them. We also observed staff ensuring they were engaging in friendly conversation with people even if they were just sitting with them in their bedrooms. Relatives echoed our observations, with one relative saying, “The people I have met, have always been very good. I’ve never seen anything other than kindness and care being shown.”

The regional manager told us, “We lead from the front, so it builds a culture. We do observations of care, and when the compliance team visit, they will be here for the whole day and observe. It’s part of training and how to understand from people’s points of view. And we listen to the people and family.”

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 were supported to achieve their own aspirations and goals. Prior to residing at Ballater house one person was non-verbal in their communication. Staff worked hard to understand their non-verbal communication and behaviours which informed their knowledge of his needs and preferences. Through supporting the person to express themself in a way they are comfortable with, the person now felt able to communicate some words around their needs. This had empowered the person to communicate their day-to-day decisions as well as express their dislikes.

Another person had previous negative experiences with showering and personal care when moving into the service and found this element of care distressing. Through staff communicating with the person and responding to their individual needs, staff have identified a way in which the person feels comfortable to shower. This had stopped the person being distressed and enabled a shower to be a positive experience.

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

We observed people being asked for their choice throughout the day. This included staff asking people what they would like to drink. A relative told us, “They discuss everything with him and respect his choices and decisions.” The cook explained to us that although there was a weekly menu, people could substitute the meal for a different one whenever they liked. Staff echoed our observations, with one staff member telling us, “We ask them what they want to wear.” Another staff member said, “I will ask them for their opinion and their permission.”

People were also empowered to be independent where possible. One staff member told us, “I will prompt them for personal care. I will encourage them to do it themselves unless they are unable to do it.” Another staff member said, “We step back and let them do it. When they’re having their lunch, they can make themselves a cup of tea if they want to.” We observed one person was wearing his top inside out. Staff explained to us they encouraged the person to be independent when dressing themselves, which sometimes resulted in their top being put on like this. When they tried to intervene, the person declined their support.

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.

The provider held a subscription with an electronic tele-med provider, which allowed them to access medical advice online with a GP 24 hours a day. This meant that staff were able to communicate with a medical professional if immediate clinical support was required.

We observed staff responding to people in a timely manner and in a person-centred way.

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

Staff members told us they were encouraged to take a short time out if they had supported someone through an episode of high anxiety or aggression. One staff member told us, “I go to the nurse in charge or the manager. We let them know how we feel. We can take half an hour. It’s supportive.”

Systems were in place to provide support to staff members outside of work. The regional manager told us, “We have the employee assistance programme. We’ll prompt them of it if there’s been a difficult incident. We have PerkBox (an employee benefits platform) for everyone. In June, Costco came in and did membership for staff. We also do HR drop-in sessions. HR come in and sit in a room for 3 hours if staff want to drop in and speak to them they can.”