The Oaks 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 provider involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

The service was previously in breach of the legal regulation in relation to privacy and dignity. Improvements were found at this assessment and the service was no longer in breach of this regulation.

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 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 treating people with respect and dignity when attending to their care. A person told us, “I was getting cold feet and told staff and straight away there was a blanket to cover my feet on the bed.” Another person said, “I have my door open, but they knock, staff are trained properly." Staff we spoke with showed compassion about the people they cared for. We observed staff treating people with respect and dignity when attending to their care. A staff member told us, “We close the door and curtains when doing personal care, we always ask people first and involve them.”

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.

Care plans included Information about people’s preferences, personal, cultural, social and religious needs. People’s communication needs were recorded so staff could meet people’s needs and include them in their care and support. A staff member told us, “One person uses signs, and we now understand their signs. They also point to signs.” Another staff member shared that they supported a person of a different nationality by sourcing culturally appropriate foods from a local shop that specialised in products from the persons country.

Staff supported individuals to follow their religious beliefs where this was their choice. This included access to religious services and respecting each person’s spiritual preferences.

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

People were encouraged to be as independent as they could be. We observed 1 person who took control over their diabetic glucose monitoring and shared the outcome with the staff when administering the appropriate dose of insulin. A staff member told us, “We encourage people to be independent. [Person] does their own personal care with only a little support from us.”

Care plans clearly outlined people’s abilities and areas where support was needed; for example, 1 care plan recorded, “I need help with cutting up food then I can eat independently.”

People were supported to access the community and staff told us, “We go to the pub, café. We ask the residents what they want to do. One resident likes wine tasting so we do this monthly. We have an entertainer every other week, the pygmy goats came in recently, this was popular. We are planning a trip to castle park where we have arranged transport for people.”

A person told us, “It is very good, plenty of activities, got a programme showing different things every day, I like the putting up the decorations and doing my knitting.” Another person said, “Activity team go the extra mile, just see the activity planner, it is good. We made ice lollies, cakes, the activity team are keen on me teaching them backgammon and have made the board and now we need to get the pieces.”

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.

Throughout the assessment we observed staff responding to people’s requests for support. Staff worked together as a team to ensure people’s needs were responded to quickly. We viewed examples of staff sharing people’s up to date needs with other staff within the service. For example, the Unit Manager had discussed a person’s diet with the chef in relation to vitamin K rich particular foods to help with blood clotting. An example of the different foods were listed within the person’s care records.

The addition of call bell monitoring meant the manager was able to see how quickly staff responded to people’s call for assistance.

Whilst we saw positive behaviour support plans for people who may have a distressed reaction contained good guidance for staff. Some of the ABC charts [ABC charts help us to assess the situation surrounding the distressed behaviour. They give us time to reflect and consider what was happening before, during, and after an episode of stress or distress] did not always give enough details in relation to whether the guidance was followed and if it was effective. These charts also did not always clearly record what the person was doing but used generic terminology to describe the situation. When we discussed this with the unit manager, they told us they would organise a training session with staff. These charts did contain some good recordings which the unit manager would be able to share with staff to improve consistency .
 

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

The service demonstrated a proactive approach to promoting staff wellbeing and developing a positive workplace culture. Staff reported access to regular wellbeing initiatives, including social events such as pizza parties, barbecues, and a summer fair. The service also celebrated its multicultural workforce through themed events, with staff encouraged to share cultural dress and cuisine .
Recognition of staff contributions was evident through the “Caring Hearts” initiative, where staff received tokens of appreciation such as flowers, chocolates, gift cards, and handwritten notes.
The provider had made reasonable adjustments to support staff wellbeing, including support for staff requiring additional assistance. A “You Said / We Did” board was in place to demonstrate responsiveness to staff feedback, and meeting minutes were made available in the staff room for transparency.
Staff felt confident raising concerns and were aware of the Freedom to Speak Up process.