Creative Support - Morecambe Service

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 service 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 service always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity.

People were treated with kindness and respect. We observed one interaction where staff used humour which the person clearly appreciated and reciprocated. One relative told us, “[Person’s] needs are increasing. It can be hard work, but staff treat them with respect. I’ve never seen any behaviour that has put me on guard or made me worry.”

People received care which gave people dignity and promoted their emotional wellbeing. One staff member told us, “We respect people’s wishes and never force anything if they don’t want support when we ask. With personal care, we allow people to have space, gain their consent and make sure they have privacy.”

People were treated with compassion. For example, staff supported people to understand their grief when people close to them passed away. Staff supported one person to attend a grief café and referred another person for grief counselling.

Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. One professional visiting the service told us, “Staff are very welcoming and very helpful when I need something.”

The service 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’s care plans included person-centred information which reflected them as individuals such as their personalities, preferences and what things like they to do or be involved in.

People’s communication needs were consistently met to enable them to engage in their care, treatment and support to maximise their experience and outcomes.Communication plans were thorough and contained clear guidelines for staff on how people communicated, including glossaries of vocalisations and gestures to support staff to understand what the person was expressing. Some people had resources to aid communication (such as Makaton signing, picture cards and choice-maker boards) and we saw staff using these confidently. Where we found 2 communication plans had not been reviewed within the required timeframe, the service reviewed them straight away and showed us evidence of how they did this. We discussed with the service ways in which they could explore communication strategies with one person to maximise their ability to engage with support staff.

Staff supported people to meet their spiritual and religious needs. For example, where one person could not attend religious services due to sensory overwhelm, staff facilitated their attendance and participation via video calls. This meant they could still benefit from the services and be involved in their religious community.

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

People’s care plans included their aspirations and goals and how staff would support them to meet these, and we saw records of how people had achieved these. One person had recently started answering the phone in their home and were very proud of this. They told us, “I answer the phone, the staff help me if I need it.” One staff member told us, “I love my job, helping people to achieve their goals makes me so very happy.”

Staff supported people to attend meaningful and person-centred activities, and they were involved in their local communities. For example, people celebrated important life events, went on holidays, visited local attractions, took part in physical exercise and regularly participated in their preferred pastimes. Speaking about a recent birthday party, one person told us, “It was such a fantastic party. I love looking at all of the photos of my friends and me.”

During our inspection, we observed people attending a festival organised by the service. People took part in singing, dancing and other activities and were able to interact with their peers. People clearly enjoyed themselves.

Staff supported people to maintain relationships with their family and friends. One person told us, “I go out to meet [my friends] as much as I can. We go for dinner and to the café on the promenade.” One relative told us, “[Person] has various things they go to including music and dance. There are good social inclusion events at the moment. [Person] is known amongst their peers.” One professional visiting the service told us, “Staff support [person] to carry out domestic tasks with them despite [person’s] restrictions as [person] likes to get involved and it promotes their independence and participation.”

Where people were not able to use the telephone to speak with those important to them, the service facilitated other means of communication such as video calls.

Some people had Motability cars to get around which staff drove for them, and some used public transport with staff 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.

Although we received some negative feedback from 1 professional about inconsistencies in how the service escalates concerns about people’s health, feedback was mostly positive about how the service responded to incidents and supported people. One professional visiting the service told us, “When there was an incident, staff were really supportive, calm and reassuring towards [person].” The service had a plan in place to improve consistency across all their supported living homes.

Staff were aware of how people may demonstrate they were unwell or in pain even when they could not tell staff this verbally. Staff knew people’s communication needs well in these areas and these were clearly recorded in people’s support and communication plans and in their risk assessments.
 

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

All the staff members we spoke with enjoyed working for the service and most spoke warmly about the registered manager and the management team, and how supportive they were. One staff member told us, “I get amazing support - it’s not always an easy job but I know I can approach the [team leader] whenever I need to. I can have my say and know they will listen.”

There were initiatives in place to promote staff wellbeing and team morale. For example, there was a hiking group which staff really enjoyed. One staff member told us, “I love the walking group, I get so much out of it and getting out into the air and seeing nearby beautiful places really helps my well-being.”

The service had supported staff following a difficult period, providing access to specialist counselling and additional annual leave where required. Staff could discuss their wellbeing during drop-in sessions and with 1-1 meetings with a manager.