Little Acres

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence.

At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has remained good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 71 (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 made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

The registered manager carried out a detailed assessment of people’s needs prior to people moving in. This helped ensure the team could effectively support them and they were well suited to the physical environment as well as considering compatibility with other people who lived at the service. We saw assessments were detailed and captured people’s wishes and needs, capacity, communication, and others involved in their life.

People’s history was included in care plans which had been gathered from the person, relatives and professionals. This provided a holistic view of the person including any exposure to trauma to ensure it was considered in all their care planning which guided staff’s safe practice.

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. Ways of working were in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

Care plans contained detailed information on how best to support people to ensure what was important and what mattered to them was included in their day-to-day support. However, not all relatives felt they had been engaged and involved in the development of their loved ones care plan. We spoke with the registered manager about this and they advised this was because of previous ways of working at the home prior to their current management approach and that relatives were now consistently involved in this process where appropriate to do so.

People were supported and encouraged to maintain relationships with others, and we saw people made phone calls to family as well as receiving visitors. Staff supported people to engage in activities that were meaningful to them. Staff recorded people’s food and fluid intake and also provided an example of a concern around a person’s fluid weight which they had identified and shared with medical professionals.

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. They shared their assessment of people’s needs when people moved between different services.

We reviewed numerous records which evidenced engagement with external professionals to support positive outcomes for people, for example social workers and health professionals such as the learning disability nursing team.

The registered manager talked to us about supporting people moving between services. They said, “There are a lot of MDT (multidisciplinary team) meetings to ensure partnership working and no steps are missed that would result in a person becoming stressed or unsettled. The last thing I want is for them to move on and take a step back.”

This meant people were effectively supported through a consistent approach when they moved between services including moving to more independent care settings.

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support.

People were supported to access the GP, dental services and opticians. The service proactively referred people to specialists, for example, a speech and language therapist, and sought support from health care professionals when they identified people’s health needs changing. 

Staff were knowledgeable and support plans contained detailed information on people’s specific health needs. For example, one person who was at risk of choking, we saw examples recorded of staff prompting them when eating to reduce the risk of them choking.

People were supported to choose from a variety of nutritious meals and snacks, including ones that were higher in calories for people at risk of malnutrition, to support their health and wellbeing.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent and met the expectations of people themselves.

We saw examples of the registered manager monitoring people’s care and treatment through the review of records and things that had been implemented to support with improving outcomes, for example updated support plans to guide staff after a change in a person’s mobility. The registered manager spoke with us about the care plans at the service and being able to monitor them and the daily records through the digital platform, “We have put a lot of time into developing the support plans. The system is so much easier to access and pull information from.”

This supported the registered manager to ensure that information was current and updated to reflect people’s care needs and improve outcomes for people.

The provider told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person centred care and treatment.

We saw capacity to consent was not always effectively documented but it had been considered through documentation in support plans and staff had a clear understanding of capacity and consent. Staff sought people’s consent before carrying out any care and support.

Observation of staff engagement with people showed they communicated with people using their preferred method of communication including using signs, language that was simple to understand, and gestures/pointing to things.

These measures supported people’s choice and ensured, when people were unable to make a decision for themselves, that the right people were involved in decision making so that it was in line with the persons wishes and preferences and made in their best interests and within a legal framework in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.