Fennell Court

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 as good. At this assessment the rating has remained as good.

This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.
 

This service scored 70 (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.

Staff were very aware of people’s individual characteristics and used their likes and dislikes to engage in meaningful conversations and activities with them, for example we observed staff interacting with people knitting and painting nails as they knew people liked these activities.

Staff respected people’s personal space. They knocked on apartment doors and waited before entering, which helped maintain people’s independence, privacy and personal boundaries.

A relative told us, “[Person] is well cared for.”

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 were person-centred, reflected people’s likes and dislikes, were strength based and reviewed regularly and updated appropriately.

Staff knew people well without needing to refer to their notes and understood how to support people differently to minimise distress for each person.

Relatives told us, "Even when [Person] is being difficult, they encourage her to do things and try and distract her," and "They know [Person] well."
 

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.
Staff encouraged people to do things for themselves where this was safe and appropriate, including aspects of personal care, getting dressed and taking part in activities.
We observed staff giving people time to process information and make choices. Staff used a calm approach and paid attention to people’s responses and provided different choices until the person was happy.
People’s individual apartments were extremely personalised, people had chosen their own furniture and decorations, and we could see how each apartment reflected the person’s personality and interests.
 

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.
Staff understood when people were showing signs of distress or frustration and there was information in care plans about how to respond. Staff were very knowledgeable about people’s needs and understood when people needed support.
When people became distressed, staff were quick to respond and used different techniques to calm the person. For example, staff told us, “When [Person] becomes distressed, best thing to do is to redirect [them] to something [they] like" and “[Person] needs you to sit and listen to [them] and after a while will become calmer.”
 

The provider did not always care about and promote the wellbeing of their staff. They did not always support or enable staff to deliver person-centred care.
We received mixed views from staff in relation to how well they felt supported by the registered manager.
Most staff felt supported and told us, “Manager is really supportive, kind and caring, I feel I am treated equally,” and “My experience of them is very supportive, they tell you to go to them if we have any issues, they balance the needs of the service with my needs too.”
However, whilst most staff were very positive and felt supported some staff said they did not always feel supported and told us, “I feel unsupported at times by registered manager, she has favourite staff - will teach something to some staff but not to others,” and “No equality, some staff are treated better than others.”

Despite this mixed view, staff consistently told us that they felt comfortable raising any concerns with the registered manager or deputy manager. Comments included, “Of course, always confident to speak up when somethings not going right,” and “Happy to raise concerns with management and they do listen to me.” As well as being able to raise any concerns with the registered manager staff had access to the operational manager and a “say something” email address.

The provider had an employee assist program and staff could access it for a range of different things for help and support, for example, housing or finance issues as well as counselling services.