The Mount Camphill Community

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

People were treated with kindness, respect and dignity by a staff team that knew them well. People were happy, interacting with staff and their peers in an environment that felt homely and safe. Staff understood the importance of gaining consent from people before providing support but at the same time promoting independence in every aspect of people’s daily lives. People were given choices and were able to decide how they wanted to spend each day. A classroom / activity schedule was followed and people were seen to enjoy taking part in all of the activities provided. Daily, positive outcomes, were achieved by people. The registered manager supported the drive to support people to be as independent as possible and there was a regular review of people’s care and support plans to ensure that goals were set, were worked towards, and achieved. A staff member told us, “Our role here is to prepare people for life after being here. To support them to advocate for themselves.”

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.

We spoke to a person preparing tables for lunch. We asked about how they got on with staff and they responded in a positive way, laughing and joking with staff members as they walked past. We saw people being treated with kindness and respect and everyone appeared relaxed at happy. During activities and classroom sessions staff supported people with different tasks to help achieve outcomes and goals. The support was always provided in a friendly, kind and compassionate way. If something had gone wrong with a task, support was given, reassuring people that things do sometimes go wrong and it’s not their fault. In a further conversation between a person and a staff member they were talking together about the different ways of shortening the person’s name and that the person liked to be called by a particular name. They were laughing together during the conversation.

The registered manager and other leaders at the service had formed positive working relationships with statutory partners. Different professionals visited the service daily to provide support, expert advice and to ensure people were being treated well. A visiting professional made the following observations about the service: “I have observed his key staff interacting positively and demonstrating a great rapport and understanding of his communication needs. From observation staff have a good understanding of his support needs and demonstrated they can support him to engage and share his views.” The same professional added, “Parents have reported to us the client is very happy at the Mount, staff having a high level of understanding of his needs which are being fully met.”

People were treated with kindness, compassion and dignity. People were happy, smiling and communicating with staff and other people in a friendly way. Relatives told us that their loved ones were treated with kindness. Comments from relatives included, “The kindness shown to everyone is so heartwarming,” “We communicate via Face Time with (person) on a daily basis and have never seen an unhappy (person)” and “The staff appear to have been trained well and support my daughter with everything from personal care to her aspirations to work. Her needs are met with kindness and dignity, she is asked her opinions on matters and feels able to communicate her feelings.” People and relatives told us that the service was home for them. The atmosphere and environment created by managers and staff meant that people lived happy, fulfilled lives, achieving goals and experiencing life to it’s full potential. A relative said, “My son’s wellbeing and happiness has increased beyond my expectations during the time at The Mount, he is no longer surviving as he was before starting there but thriving in the special environment that The Mount has created.” Another relative added, “He also sees the co-workers (staff) to be a similar age and sees them as having a more informal way of engaging so he wouldn’t hesitate to ask them to have a game of snooker or pool with him.” Finally a relative described what living at the service was like for their loved one: “My daughter has been at the college for 5 years and then moved to co-housing over a year ago. She has always been so happy at both, to the point of considering her place at co housing as her main home and not the family home.”

Staff understood the importance of treating people with respect and dignity. A staff member told us, “It’s important to listen to people.” Another said, “People are treated very well.” Specifically describing dignity a member of staff said, “Dignity and privacy, definitely. Some people request privacy and with others you can create it for them, just by closing doors. It’s about balancing support needs with keeping dignity.” A member of staff showed us a care plan, highlighting the pen picture called ,’Hello my name is.’ People were involved in all aspects of their own plans and were able to include likes, dislikes, preferred routines and preferred names.

We did not look at Treating people as individuals during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

The support provided by the service had transformed people’s lives. People and relatives told us how their confidence had grown and they were now achieving goals and aspirations they felt would never have been possible before moving into the home. Staff supported people to be as independent in all aspects of their lives as possible. A collective target for all of the people living at the service was to be prepared for independent living were they to leave the service. People were supported and encouraged to select their clothes each day, [prepare food, attend classes and activities and many had become independent with moving around the service, attending different locations at the correct time to start a lesson or activity. Relatives told us how their loved ones have done well at the service and how independence in their lives had grown. Comments included: “In his previous school my son was not able to engage with activities without his hand being physically held and moved according to what needed to be achieved (hand over hand as some may call it…) he took to all activities straight away at The Mount and his independence started to emerge fairly early on,” “(person) is attending The Mount precisely because he requires a waking day curriculum which allows him to learn all about and to exercise independence as much as possible. He is encouraged to complete his personal hygiene and to move around The Mount campus as independently as possible” and “I actually can't sing the praises of The Mount Camphill Community highly enough. It has changed my daughter into a much more independent and happy young person than I could ever have dreamed of.”

The registered manager described an ongoing and expanding social enterprise initiative that had a named staff lead. The initiative aims were to encourage people to reach further out into the community, increasing their independence and integration further. People’s independence was a theme that ran through every aspect of care plans. Plans were regularly reviewed with updated details of achievements and goals reached. Likes, dislikes, aims and aspirations were all recorded and monitored by staff and managers. Each section of the care plans began by describing what the person could achieve themselves before highlighting the areas where support may be needed.

Throughout our site visit we observed people making choices about where they wanted to spend their time and what activities / workshops they wanted to attend. Some people were able to move independently around the service, between buildings which housed different workshops. Others were supported by staff to reach the areas they chose to spend their time. Within the residential houses we saw people spending time as they wished, carrying out tasks for themselves for example, food preparation, talking with peers and being encouraged to dress how they wished.

Staff knew people well. Staff were trained to encourage people to be as independent as possible to prepare them for living more independent lives in the future. Staff were available to provide support when needed and to make sure people were safe but to still allow them to carry out day to day tasks and to move around the service independently. Comments from staff included: “Encourage and take a step by step approach,” “Independence is promoted. Understanding of people important. Supported person to use train to work experience recently. Was very reluctant at first, now is fine” and “Free choices. I encourage independence, to learn how to live. For example step by step when doing laundry – observe first, then reminders then ask and check.”

We did not look at Responding to people’s immediate needs during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Workforce wellbeing and enablement during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.