Chocolate Works Care Village

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

Staff always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

People felt they were treated with dignity and respect. People told us, “The staff are kind.” And, “The staff have been very welcoming and very supportive. They are very good.” However, people’s dignity is likely to be affected if they are not taken to the toilet promptly or staff are rushing.

Staff 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. One person told us, “Staff shut the door at night times, which I like. They talk nicely to you and we have fun.”

Staff promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. One relative told us, “The staff are amazing. They are pushing them every day and have been there for them. They couldn’t do anything for themselves, now they can eat by themselves.”

The registered manager listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs as quickly as they could to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress. However, people, staff and visiting professionals told us there were not enough staff.

Staff worked exceptionally hard and they were committed to provide high quality care and ensure people were treated with dignity and respect. Call bell response times were longer than people expected. People were generally unhappy with the response times. People told us, “They do come but you have to wait a while. It depends how busy they are.” And another person said, “Once I had to wait an hour and a half [to go to the toilet]. I was very uncomfortable. You often have to wait a long time.” A relative told us, “They have to wait a while. When they want to go to the toilet, they get agitated. I worry about them when I am not here as they have to wait a long time for staff to come.”

The provider also accepted wait times were too long and further work was needed.

While there were provider led initiatives to promote staff wellbeing and reward and recognise staff achievements, staff were clear they wanted more staff to provide consistent high-quality support. Staff continue to struggle to understand the new provider’s decision to reduce staffing levels supporting people living with dementia, despite no reduction in the number of people needing support. This continued to impact staff wellbeing and morale. One staff member said, “When [this provider] took over a couple of years ago, they immediately reduced the carers on the middle floor from 6 down to 5 for the same amount of people. It has been really hard since then. We need more staff.” A visiting professional told us, “The staff seem burnt out. They are keen to work their best.”