Bishops Corner

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

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.

Staff demonstrated genuine empathy for the people they care for balanced with humour and respect. Families and health professionals felt people were treated with kindness, compassion and dignity in their day-to-day care and support. Relatives told us, “The staff are all nice, and cheerful, they treat us all with respect, I never feel as if I am a nuisance,” and “Really pleased with the service, I think it has had usual problems with staffing, but it has never affected the pleasant staff.”

Health professionals told us that staff knew people well and were supportive, caring and kind. One said, “The staff, they know the people they support really well, they are respectful and seem to genuinely enjoy their work.” Another comment made was, “I enjoy working with the staff and the people are delightful.”

We observed staff showing humour, kindness and compassion for people they were supporting. Staff assisted people calmly and kindly and distracted them when they were anxious. Staff were thoughtful and kind when assisting with meals, activities or moving around the home, and ensured peoples clothing was suitable for the weather and to protect their dignity.

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.

People were supported in a way that met their individual needs and demonstrated how well staff knew each person. One relative said, “They know them really well” they told us this had a positive impact on their loved one’s life.

People’s support needs were well managed. Most of the people currently living in the service were independent and just needed prompting and supervision. Staff took into account people’s individual life choices, preferences and friendships made. This information was used to develop care plans and social plans. For example, two people had developed relationships with people living in another service, staff supported them with arrangements and keeping them safe. Many staff had worked in the service for many years and knew people extremely well. They spoke about people as individuals and were able to tell us about their interests, past and present and their families.

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

We observed people’s needs and requests being met during the site visits, people had choice to change their plans and activities when they chose to. However, choices for people were limited at this time in respect of activities. A new activity person had been recruited, and this was an area that was being developed. People enjoyed going out to a local pub and this was a regular event and people made choices of which pub or venue was to be visited. Despite the restrictions of food and drinks these outing were well planned and enjoyed by all.

New menus are being devised with input from people, an external dietician and a senior member of staff. People were fully involved and enabled to contribute their thoughts and choices.

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.

Relatives told us staff knew their loved ones well and understood how to provide the support they needed. Staff understood people and how to respond to immediate needs. This included knowledge of how people’s well-being and health may change throughout the day and the appropriate support they should provide. This included what people may say and changes within vocalisations or behaviours that may indicate distress or pain.

For some people immediate support meant they followed clear routines. If these were not followed people may become distressed. Staff told us about one person who, as soon as they were up and dressed, needed to follow their routine to avoid distress. Staff said, “As soon as [name] is up, we know what we have to do, we cannot change what we are going to do.”

We saw staff were vigilant in their observations of people. They were alert to any changes and immediately offered support or redirected the person to minimise any risk of distress.

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

All staff we spoke with told us of a supportive management team that provided them with the support and training they needed to be able to provide the best care for people. Comments from staff included, “Our manager has been here 3 months now and he is good, supportive and approachable, things are moving forward, I was behind with supervisions last year but am now getting them,” “If I had any problem, I could go to the manager or deputy and know I would be listened to,” and “The managers office is upstairs, but we can call him directly at any time.” The service provided an on-call system that meant that staff could call a manager from the organisation at any time for support if needed. There was a good relationship seen between staff and management team, and staff confirmed that changes were happening in the service, but they felt supported through them, one staff member said, “There are some good changes happening, especially with training and meetings.”