Larchwood Grove

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.

This is the first assessment for this newly registered service. This key question has been rated 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 observed staff being kind to people. There was lots of laughter and banter, and staff showed they were compassionate. Staff helped people communicate with the inspection team when it was needed.

People told us, “The staff here are absolutely lovely” and “[Registered manager] is lovely, she really cares.” Relatives said, “The staff are very kind and caring”, “They are very kind, they know what they’re doing” and “Staff are ok, it is good they now have staff that can speak her language.”

We observed staff knocking on people’s doors before entering their rooms. A person said, “Sometimes they knock on the door sometimes they don’t.” They named a staff member who sometimes did not and told the staff member who was in the room. They agreed to discuss this with the staff member to remind them to knock in future.

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 told us about things they enjoyed doing which they were supported to do by staff. Some people enjoyed going to church each week, sometimes the church visited the service. People were supported to go out to the cinema, bowling, local parks, walks, shopping, pubs and cafes. Staff showed us photographs of a person’s special birthday celebration which was held at the church, people told us they enjoyed the party, they had food, cake and did some dancing.

A person had a season ticket to their local football club, and they were supported to attend matches when they were playing at their home ground. The person was very happy with the support and told us they travelled to the game by bus. The person also proudly told us they had been to a family member’s wedding, they had been supported by staff to attend and told us they had stayed right to the end, so they had a very late night. A person had been on holiday abroad with their family. Some people visited their relatives on a regular basis.

The provider did not always promote people’s independence, so people did not always know their rights and have choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. People were prevented from accessing the kitchen and laundry and were not supported to do things for themselves, such as assisting with food shopping, food preparation, cooking, cleaning and laundry. The registered manager and the nominated individual for the provider told us people were supported to actively participate in food preparation within the dining room regularly, led by the cook and with staff support. We did not see people on both days of our site visits being invited to participate in preparing their foods. These tasks were done by staff in the kitchen area.

The nominated individual for the provider also told us that people participated in cleaning their rooms each week with staff support. We observed staff carrying out cleaning in the service.

A person told us, “I used to do the napkins in the laundry, but I can’t do it anymore as it got stopped as we have walkers, it doesn’t matter.”

A person’s relative shared that sometimes their loved one had had to leave their football match early in order to get the bus. They told us, “This could be better, I’ve not raised it because was the end of season.” The nominated individual for the provider told us they would investigate this. Another relative said, “She does sometimes say she gets fed up with the home, but I think that is boredom. When I take her home, she enjoys lots of activity, which they may not always be able to provide. The nominated individual for the provider told us, people had been on holidays in the UK and abroad with their families and enjoyed activities with their relatives.

People were able to have their bedroom doors closed if they wanted to.

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.

We observed staff responding to people’s needs in a timely manner. For example, when a person became distressed, they began to cry and become agitated. Staff supported the person to calm and helped them talk about the problem and resolve it. We observed staff also supporting people when they became over excited and loud which impacted on other people.

We observed staff responding to people’s needs physically and verbally. Staff told us some people used some Makaton signs to communicate, although staff did not all know the signs, they knew a person had a picture of the signs in their bedroom which assisted them. We observed staff responding to a person who did not use verbal communication. The person had taken their socks and shoes to a staff member which indicated they wanted to go outside, staff responded and the person went out into the garden to use the swing.

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

Staff told us they felt well supported by the registered manager. Staff told us the registered manager was responsive to requests around childcare and religious needs. Staff said, “Our wellbeing is pertinent to [registered manager], she doesn’t allow us to be overworked, our work life is balanced. Annual leave is granted” and “There is counselling available, other support we have is our annual leave is given when it is requested. I am sure the company is staff friendly.”