Aranlaw House 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 service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

This is the first inspection 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 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. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

We observed staff to be kind and respectful when interacting with people. People seemed at ease in the company of staff. Some people who did not use verbal communication as their primary method of communication, leaned into care staff or held their hands when asked if they were happy with staff support at Aranlaw House Care Home.

The service had created roles within the staff team of, ‘Champion.’ These staff members had dedicated roles, often undertaking additional training. For example, a dementia champion and a dignity champion. The champion cascaded their learning to the staff team and shared their knowledge. The service told us these staff routinely demonstrated acts of kindness within their role. Supporting people to achieve their personal goals and improve wellbeing.

A relative told us “Walking through the door is like a cuddle. It is a family here.” Another relative said, “As a family, we have a high opinion of care staff, and they do always try their best.”
 

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.

Staff treated people as individuals and told us they knew the levels of support people at Aranlaw House Care Home needed. They told us they understood this may change because people living with dementia can have days where they are able to complete tasks independently and days where they need more support. Staff said, “I'm really proud of the activities we provide here. If residents don't want to do it, we try a different face, a new member of staff because residents respond differently…we know our residents well, we knew today who would want to join in singing and who would prefer the church service.”

The service had an equality and diversity policy in place. The policy detailed the providers commitment to uphold legislation and best practice to ensure people, staff and visitors were treated fairly.

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

People were supported to be independent, to make choices and have control over their lives. We were assured the staff team understood the importance of this. Staff were able to describe activities they supported people with, and this was reflected in people’s daily records. For example, staff had supported a person to reduce periods of emotional distress by getting to know them and their preferences. This had enabled them to feel more settled and trust staff which in turn had improved their wellbeing and reduced their distress.One staff member told us, “It is important to find people's individual interest like "booze and tattoos", gardening club, bringing in animals and entertainers. When we do find the right activities, it uplifts staff too, and they join in, so it has that positive party impact on people.”

The service listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff respond to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

People’s care plans gave staff clear instructions on how to support people during times of distress. This included examples of topics to talk to the person about and how to support others to ensure they remained safe.

Staff gave examples of how they lived the values of the service, in particular; caring, reliability and kindness. Comments included; “We are here for residents” and, “It's a fast paced job that you need to love and be committed to. I thoroughly enjoy it.”

Staff told us handover meetings took place daily to ensure staff on duty each shift could monitor and respond to people’s needs. The registered manager understood their responsibilities in ensuring people’s immediate needs were responded to. They had systems and processes in place to support this and had oversight of people’s needs.

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

Staff told us there were several recognition schemes which gave them the opportunity to receive awards, including employee of the month. Additionally, staff provided examples of instances they had been supported by the registered manager to remain in work during times of personal difficulty. One staff member said, “The registered manager is great. They have supported me to both work and provide care for a family member when I thought I would be unable to continue working at Aranlaw House Care Home.”

The provider had structures and policies in place to support workforce well-being and enablement. This had included a dedicated member of staff whose focus was staff wellbeing they organised staff outings which had promoted teamwork and appreciation. The service was proactive in their approach to their staff team morale.Posters for access to mental health support and self-guided tools available to staff were displayed on notice boards throughout the service, including details of who to contact for immediate support.