Hillbeck Residential Care Home

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence.

At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has remained good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 71 (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 made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

Each person had a care plan which was regularly reviewed to ensure it continued to reflect people’s health and care needs, and set out the care they should expect from living at Hillbeck. Leaders had introduced a system of sitting down with people and their relatives more frequently to review their care. One relative told us, “We had a recent care plan meeting where we discussed things that needed amending. Things have always been done.”

If people had an accident such as a fall or their health deteriorated, for example, weight loss or mobility, their care plan was always updated. This was done to provide clear up to date guidance for staff on how each individual should be supported safely.

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

There was clear, evidence-based guidance on how each person should be supported to ensure their health and care needs were met. This included use of national accredited tools such as ‘Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool’ to continually monitor people’s risk of malnutrition, or the ‘Waterlow’ tool to monitor people’s risk of their skin deteriorating. People’s care plans were shaped alongside health and care professionals, and their needs regularly discussed in multi-disciplinary meetings to ensure their care continued to be underpinned by professional guidance.

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services.

Staff worked together proactively and spoke of pride about the teams they worked with. They worked collaboratively with other organisations and families to ensure people received the care they required. One staff member told inspectors, “We are proud of the care we provide, the teamwork and how we help each other.” Relatives told us about how staff worked together to provide them with the support they needed during challenging personal circumstances. One relative explained, “Staff have been so supportive. That is where you get reassurance, she is in the right place. I just want my last times with her to be good days, we can here.”

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support.

People were promoted to have maximum physical and mental wellbeing at Hillbeck. There was a varied menu which included healthier options tailored to people’s needs and wishes, such as softer or diabetic friendly dishes to meet their dietary requirements. There were frequent activities which encouraged people to get up and moving as we observed during our visit where there was a, “Wake Up and Shake Up” activity. Relatives told us these were a regular occurrence with one relative explaining, “Yes, the dancing is usual and I've seen them doing it before.”

Where people had strategies to support their wellbeing such as staff encouraging regular nutrition and hydration or personal care, these were closely reviewed to ensure they were proving effective at improving people’s quality of life.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves.

There were robust systems to monitor people’s experience of care to ensure it was safe and continued to meet their expectations. Risks including constipation, dehydration, malnutrition and self-neglect were closely monitored by leaders, with action taken in response such as greater encouragement or referrals to other health and care agencies made if needed. We observed a daily meeting which happened at lunchtime involving leaders and senior staff reviewed monitoring records and anybody they were concerned about, and any action that would be taken as a result.

The provider did not always tell people about their rights around consent and did not always respect their rights when delivering care and treatment.

Some restrictions in place were not appropriately assessed through a mental capacity assessment to demonstrate they were in each person’s best interest, for instance locked doors and other restrictions on people’s movement. However other restrictions on people to ensure their safety where clearly documented, including that people’s representatives and health and care professionals had been involved in this process.