Maplebrook 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 requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

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

People’s needs had been assessed and their care plans contained improved information about their needs and preferences. Where changes had taken place, we found care plans and risk assessments had been updated to ensure guidance was available for staff to follow to meet people’s health, care and support needs. For example, where people’s dietary needs had been reassessed and changes made, this was clearly recorded.

Staff told us information about people’s assessed needs was shared with them. One staff member said, “We get an assessment and care plan to read before people come in. The nurse also gives a really clear update on their needs, and we also have sit down discussions with people.”

We found information about people’s life histories could be better captured to reflect their experiences. The deputy manager acknowledged this and told us this was an area identified for improvement. We will check this at the next inspection.

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.

The staff team worked with external agencies, such as healthcare partners to ensure people’s care was supported by current best practice guidance. This included guidance within care plans relating to people’s mental health or dietary needs. Staff sought specialist advice to ensure practices were current and beneficial for people’s health. For example, by supporting people with modified diets recommended by Speech and Language Therapists (SALT). This also included working with GP’s, occupational therapists, community mental health teams and social workers.

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.

Nursing staff and the management team shared information daily with the staff team through short ‘flash’ meetings and communication systems. Staff feedback confirmed this. One staff member told us, “Communication is good, so are the staff . People are safe and things are done properly here.”

We received positive feedback from partner agencies, who told us they felt communication from the staff team was good and any referrals made were appropriate.

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 spoke positively about the support they received to manage their health. One person told us, “The staff understand my health needs 100 per cent.”

Improvements had been made to ensure people were offered opportunities to support their well-being. The activities team were enthusiastic about supporting people in both groups and on a 1 to1 basis, with the aim of improving people’s involvement in meaningful activities, which benefited them. The activities team took time to find out about what interested people. Where people had shared information about their interests, ideas had then been developed into activities. For example, 1 person had expressed an interest in a specific place, so a day was being planned to celebrate the culture and diversity of that country.

People were supported to attend healthcare appointments. Where staff had concerns about people’s health, records showed timely action had been taken to ensure they had access to support from healthcare professionals. People had access to healthy food, and options were available to enable them to make choices at mealtimes.

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.

Systems were in place to support staff to monitor information that was essential to people’s health and wellbeing. This included monitoring repositioning to reduce the risk of sore skin, diet and fluid intake and people’s weight. This information was reviewed regularly by nursing staff to ensure any action could be taken without delay. Where changes were needed, such as more frequent repositioning, this was documented and changes made to the electronic record systems so staff were aware.

The provider told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.

People told us staff sought their consent before providing care and support. One person said, “The staff do ask for consent before providing support.”

People’s mental capacity had been assessed in relation to specific decisions and guidance was in place for staff to ensure they acted lawfully when supporting people.

We observed staff sought people’s consent prior to providing care. Staff shared examples of how they supported people to make their own decisions where possible. They told us there was a process in place to ensure any decisions made on behalf of people were done so in their best interests. Records we reviewed confirmed this.