Essence Supported Living limited Also known as Essence 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. This is the first assessment for this service. This key question has been rated good.

This service scored 70 (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.

People told us they were treated with kindness and respect. A relative told us, “They [staff] are kind and caring.” Staff told us how they promoted people’s dignity and privacy when providing support with personal care. A member of staff said, “We make sure that nobody else is in the room [when providing support with personal care] and that [person] is happy.”

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care and support 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 mostly person-centred, based around individual’s needs. They included information about people’s likes and preferences and their personal history. Staff were knowledgeable about people’s individual needs and how to meet them. People were able to choose the gender of their care staff.

The provider did not always promote people’s independence, so people did not always know their rights and have choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Care plans were in place. These said people should be supported to maintain their independence and to do as much for themselves as possible. However, they did not go into detail about what people could do for themselves and what they needed support with. Shortly after our inspection the provider updated care plans to include this information.

People told us they were supported to be independent. A relative said, “If [person] needs help they [staff] help.” But added, the person was able to do things for themselves where possible. Staff told us how they promoted independence and how they enabled people to make choices. A member of staff said, “We ask [person] what they want for breakfast and they tell us.” The same staff member added, “[Person] can wash their own hands and face.”

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 we spoke with had a good understanding of people’s needs and how to meet them. Staff were punctual which meant they were able to provide support at the time it had been requested by people. The times of visits had been chosen by people. People told us staff met their needs. A relative said, “They understand [person’s] needs. [Person] has dementia and they know how to take care of them with the dementia.”
 

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

Staff told us it was a good place to work. One member of staff said, “They [management] are really nice, they are really helpful. When we need something, they are there.” Staff had access to regular training to help them develop in their role. Staff also had 1 to 1 supervision which gave them the opportunity to discuss matters of importance to them.