Rivers

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 good. At this assessment the rating has remained good. This meant people felt well-supported, cared for or treated with dignity and respect.

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. We observed staff to be kind and caring and always treated people with empathy and compassion. A person told us, “Staff respect private time.” Relatives told us, “All staff are lovely and caring, very nice, they have [relative’s] needs at heart.” And, “They are very kind and caring for sure.” Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. Professionals told us, “Staff are always warm and engaging.” And, “Staff have treated clients with dignity, engaged with them well and spoken to them in a warm and friendly way. They have a good rapport with the clients, and they are not under pressure to compromise on this.”

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. Throughout our visit we saw people being treated as individuals. People said they were able to make choices about their day to day lives. People told us, “You can do what you want each day” and “You can choose when get up and when go to bed.” Relatives told us, “They help [relative] make choices and support [relative] with things [relative] wants to do.” And, “[Relative] is given choices in all they do, [relative] has the final say, privacy is respected.”

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. Support plans detailed how staff could encourage people’s independence with staff giving examples of this. This included how they encouraged people to complete tasks for themselves such as eating meals with prompting from them. People had access to a range of activities. A person told us they liked to go out to listen to live music and staff and family supported them to do this. Relatives told us there is a wide and varied range of activities available to their loved ones. This included in house activities, activities to meet people’s sensory needs, and also bespoke activities specific for the individual within the community. A person organised a festival every year to raise money for their chosen charity, with other people being supported to raise money for their chosen charities at different events.

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. During our visits staff were observed to be responding to people's immediate needs. Interactions between staff and people were caring and compassionate, enabling staff to anticipate and meet people’s needs quickly and in ways that reduced and mitigated people’s discomfort and distress. A relative told us, “Lack of communication means [relative] gets upset, not challenging behaviour, frustrated, always an issue, part of plan is how it is managed, they are very good and give [relative] time and explain what is going on.”

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. Systems and processes in place included an employee assistance programme and mental health first aiders. Staff felt supported by the registered manager and their colleagues. Comments included, “It’s a good team. You feel supported.” And, “Management and staff are all understanding and supportive.”