Selwood House Care Home

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 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.

We saw caring interactions between staff and people and noted when staff were concerned, they immediately told more senior staff who provided them with additional support.

Relatives were very complimentary about staff and how they treated their family members. They told us, “They [staff] are very nice. They come and sit with her, take her hand, they are patient and caring.” And “They say how lovely he is, they are very fond of him. He has made friends there. They have regular coffee mornings, lots of banter.” A third relative said, “They all seem to know her personally. They have a laugh and a joke with her. They treat her really nicely. No concerns whatsoever.” And “Walking past, rubbing her shoulder, are you all right [name]. The interaction is very kind; they speak to her respectfully.”

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.

Care plans were person centred and from the pre-admission assessment onwards, information learned about people was noted and shared to ensure all staff knew peoples likes and dislikes.

Relatives felt staff knew people well. A relative said, “They come in and say, ‘she was telling us all about where she lived’.” And “The cleaning team are also aware of who she is. Everyone together know who the people are.”

All staff had completed training on equality and diversity which was regularly refreshed to ensure they remained current in their knowledge.

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 encouraged to complete tasks independently when possible. For example, if people could wash their face or brush their hair, they were encouraged to keep doing this while staff supported with the care tasks they could no longer manage.

Staff supported people to have meals in the dining room so they could be sociable and meet others, as well as potentially improving nutritional intake. A staff member told us, “Even within routines, I provide choices; for example, asking what they’d like to wear, offering a selection of drinks, or letting them decide where to sit at meals. Where possible, I encourage residents to do tasks for themselves, such as brushing their hair or carrying their tray, so they retain independence and dignity.” A second staff member told us, “In my experience so far, when residents request not to eat at a specific time, alternatives are available, different options offered, sometimes individuals don't want to get up when we arrive to support them, but we would respect that and come back again later or compromise where needed. Person centred care and consideration of individuals choices respected, as much as is possible.”

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.

We received mixed feedback about staff response to people when they used their call bells. One relative told us staff were particularly careful in ensuring their family member could use the call bell, they pinned it to the persons pillow to keep it within their reach.

A relative told us, “They can use it. When they first went there, we had a lot of ‘they don’t come.’ They have no concept of time, when we have been there, they have come within a reasonable time, we haven’t had any comments in a while.”

We monitored call bells to ensure they did not ring for prolonged periods before being answered. We noted no particularly lengthy calls and relatives confirmed they did not wait a long time for their family member to receive support.

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

Staff were supported by the management team who participated in supervision 1-to-1 meetings with them. The registered manager had an open-door policy and from commencing in role had been spending extra time in the service, so they were available to staff during both day and night shifts.

We asked staff members if the management team were supportive and the majority of feedback was positive telling us they felt supported and appreciated by the management team.