Archived: The White House

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 inadequate. At this assessment the rating has remained inadequate. This meant people were not treated with compassion and there were breaches of dignity; staff caring attitudes had significant shortfalls.

The service was in breach of legal regulation in relation to people not being treated in a respectful and dignified way.

This service scored 45 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

As at the previous inspection, people were not always treated with kindness, empathy and compassion and they were not always treated with respect and dignity. During the morning, the music playing in the lounge was playing very loudly. There were people sat just beneath the speaker. Loud music in a dementia care home can be detrimental to people’s well-being due to its potential to cause confusion, agitation, and increased anxiety.

We observed people looking unkempt, had greasy hair and had clothes on that were not matching. One relative told us of their loved one, “(Person) doesn’t look like (person) has had a wash.” Aside from the infection control issue this can also impact a person's dignity and self-esteem. We noted that staff were not always recording when people had last had a bath or a shower. They were just recording that personal care had been given without any further detail.

In the morning of our visit at 11.45, a person expressed that they wished to use the bathroom. There was some discussion between senior staff and other staff on who was going to support the person with this. However, by 12.00 staff had left the person to perform other care duties. By the time lunch was being served at 12.30 the person had still not been taken to the bathroom.

Leaders and staff were not always respectful when referring to people. We saw references in care notes to people’s distressed behaviours that were undignified. For example, one care note referred to a person, “(Person) was very annoying throughout the night.” One leader referred to wanting to get ‘cot sides’ for a person rather than referring to them as bed rails. A health care professional fed back that the same leader walked round a privacy screen while they were providing care to a person without introducing themselves.

We did find some instances of staff being considerate to people. For example, 1 person was visibly cold, and a member of staff placed a blanket around them to keep them warm. Another person spilled some water, and a member of staff immediately went over to them, cleaned this up and reassured the person.

We did not look at Treating people as individuals during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Independence, choice and control during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Responding to people’s immediate needs during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Workforce wellbeing and enablement during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.