Lepton Heights Health Care Limited Also known as Exemplar Health Care

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.

This is the first assessment for this newly registered service. This key question has been rated good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 80 (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 saw examples of respectful and caring relationships between staff and people. Staff understood people’s needs and spoke with pride when describing positive outcomes people had experienced. People and their relatives felt staff were kind and supported people’s dignity needs. One person told us they were treated with dignity and respect “Always one hundred percent of the time”.

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’s individuality was respected and care plans reflected this. For example, one person’s care plan spoke throughout about what the person was independent with and how this should be promoted by making sure they had access to equipment to support them, they knew where to go for advice and who to approach for practical assistance when this was needed. A relative told us, “All the residents are different, they [staff] know what to do, they have the right skills”.

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

People were supported to have choice and control over their own care and to make decisions about their care, treatment, wellbeing and, where possible, lifestyles. People also had choices about their room set up including choice of double, single, or if preferred hospital bed.

The dedicated staff support offered to one person to increase their mental and physical health; their skills and independence had resulted in the person making significant lifestyle changes and being able to leave the service to live more independently.

Although there had been some outings and social events, people and their relatives referred to a lack of activity provision in the service. One person said, “I get bored and fed-up”. The manager was aware of this and was trying to engage a person dedicated to supporting people with activities.

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 knew people well and were able to anticipate their needs. Where people were receiving 1:1 support, the time period of support provided by individual staff members had been shortened, at the request of staff, to make sure they were able to stay fully engaged with the person. People reported quick response from staff when they used their call bells. One person described staff response as “rapid” saying also “In an emergency I press the buzzer and they’re very professional”.

The provider always cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and was exceptional at supporting and enabling staff to always deliver person-centred care.

Staff wellbeing was clearly a priority for the provider, with a comprehensive range of support systems in place to promote staff welfare and resilience. These included access to an employee assistance programme offering counselling, advice and guidance, alongside financial support and assistance for those who needed it.

The manager demonstrated a genuinely caring and proactive approach to staff wellbeing, and had introduced a range of innovative initiatives designed to support and value the workforce. For example, the ‘I’ve been there buddies’ scheme where staff could offer to share experiences and support other members of the team with a range of personal matters that someone might be struggling with. Recognition and appreciation were also actively promoted through award schemes, including opportunities for staff to nominate colleagues who had demonstrated excellence in their role.

The manager placed a strong emphasis on ensuring staff understood their roles and felt valued. Mechanisms such as staff forums provided meaningful opportunities for staff voices to be heard. Staff were also encouraged to record an emoji when signing out at the end of each working day to reflect how they were feeling. The manager regularly reviewed and analysed these responses, which demonstrated a significantly improving picture.

A positive and inclusive culture was further fostered through a variety of fun initiatives. These included daily staff quizzes with prizes and a sweet box for staff to pick from whenever they visited the manager. Staff were complimentary of the new manager and their approach and also felt the clinical manager had done an “amazing” job in supporting and caring about staff.