EVHM LLP - 25 Alexandra Road

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.

Staff knew people well and how best to support them. We observed staff interacting warmly with people and saw that people responded with smiles and that there was a friendly rapport. People’s relatives spoke well about the relationship between staff and their loved ones. One person’s relative said their relative was, “Treated well and staff were very friendly.” Another relative said, “The staff are lovely.” Staff spoke with us about how they ensured people’s privacy and dignity, and we observed staff supporting people to ensure their dignity was maintained.

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.

Menus were decided by people weekly and each person had the opportunity to choose two meals that they would like. However, if a person then decided they did not want what was on the menu they could also ask for an alternative.

Each person had a keyworker who they met with on a regular basis and a record was made of the outcome. Records included information about wellbeing, activities, goals, health, and contact with family. One person was sometimes reluctant to have these meetings, but it was noted that they had a twice weekly one to one outing with a staff member and these outings enabled opportunities for staff to hear the person’s views and wishes for the following week.

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 be as independent as possible. We saw that one person took their dirty dishes to the kitchen and staff told us that the person washed them. The person told us they had a weekly day for laundry, and they changed their bed sheets and cleaned their bedroom on that day. They also said they take their laundry to the kitchen and staff helped them to wash their clothes. They told us they cooked microwave pizza and made scrambled egg. A staff member said that sometimes it could be difficult to persuade people to get involved in kitchen chores but if staff also participated and there was team work it became more of an activity and less of a chore.

Staff supported people to maintain important links with family and friends. One person had a mobile phone and could message their relative when they chose. They went to stay with their relative for weekends on a regular basis. Another person enjoyed twice weekly conversations with their relative.

One person did not like going out but they had very definite hobbies that they enjoyed at home. They were able to tell us what they liked doing, their favourite tv programmes and favourite music. Another person liked to use their one-to-one sessions with their keyworker to decide activities for the following week. They often chose to go to record shops or to have lunch out.

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 worked alone so they had to be creative to respond to requests for activities that were not planned. However, people liked the security of planned activities. If people were distressed there were procedures to call on staff from another service to support them. A staff member said, “Sometimes a fresh face using the same deescalation techniques can be enough to calm a situation and meet the person’s immediate needs/concerns.” We saw that one person regularly sought out staff when they wanted reassurance. Staff always stopped what they were doing to hear what the person had to say and to reassure them that they could still do the things they wanted to do at the normal time.

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

The registered manager recognised the importance of staff well-being. Staff spoke very highly of the registered manager, and a number of the staff team stated it was the best place they had ever worked. Staff received regular supervision from either the registered manager or the deputy manager. All staff said that they didn’t need to wait for meetings, they knew that the door was always open if they had any concerns or worries.

A staff member told us the registered manager was, “Great,” and that they, “Couldn’t ask for more.” They told us that when they needed support outside of work, the registered manager had offered to support them to attend appointments, and they were extremely grateful for that support.” Another staff member told us, “This is the nicest place I’ve worked; it is a home rather than a care organisation. It’s not like that in all care homes. We have nice relationships and we get to know people really well and how to word things.”