Options The Old Vicarage

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 requires improvement.

This meant people did not always feel well-supported, cared for or treated with dignity and respect.

This service scored 60 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People were treated with kindness, compassion and respect. People told us staff were kind and they had good relationships with staff and others living at the service. A person commented, “I get on well with everyone.” Staff spoke fondly about the people they cared for. Staff were kind and supportive when caring for people. They spent time with people and engaged in conversations about subjects which interested the person. Staff and people appeared relaxed. Staff smiled and laughed with people throughout our visit. Staff were quick to reassure and comfort people when needed. Relatives told us most staff were kind. A relative commented, “The staff are caring people and I am happy.”

Staff treated people as individuals. They knew and understood people’s religious and cultural needs. However, some staff felt people needed more support to celebrate their culture and religion. A staff member commented, “I do not feel that [person’s] culture or religion is celebrated or supported in the way it should be.” We discussed this with senior managers. They explained people celebrated religious events and were given support to eat meals which reflected their culture. A relative told us a person was provided with their own crockery to meet cultural requirements. They explained that this sometimes got mixed up with other crockery. Managers agreed to speak with people’s relatives to make sure they were doing all they could and to ask if there were other ways that they could support people better.

Staff created personalised care plans which outlined how people liked to be cared for. Staff knew people’s interests and hobbies. People told us they were supported to do the things they wanted to. A relative commented, “I think the staff know [person’s] likes and dislikes.”

The provider had not always ensured everyone’s views were considered when food shopping. One person required a specific type of meat for religious reasons. Managers told us that all meat they purchased met this dietary requirement. However, they could not evidence whether other people had been consulted or agreed to this. The management team agreed to review the situation and obtain consent for this or make alternative arrangements.

Some relatives told us they would like people to take part in a wider range of different social activities. Some people wanted part time jobs. We discussed this with the management team. They told us part of their plan for improving the service was to support people to have a wider range of things to do and explore different options. Some people attended colleges. The staff provided support with social and leisure activities at home. These included games, karaoke, puzzles and cooking sessions. People told us they enjoyed these activities.

Staff supported people to make choices. We observed staff offering people choices about where and how to spend their time and what to eat. Staff explained how they used different methods to help communicate with people and enhance their understanding. This included visual clues, pictures and words in ways people could understand. One person did not speak English as a first language. The provider employed staff who spoke their first language. Other staff told us they understood a range of words and phrases, and they used these to help communicate with the person and to understand their choices.

People took part in household chores and cooking. They made decisions about the food they ate and helped to prepare meals for each other. Some people travelled independently and had their own keys to the home. A relative commented, “They promote [person’s] independence to do jobs around the house.”

Staff responded to people’s immediate needs. Staff were aware of how people showed distress and anxiety. They responded appropriately offering people comfort and guidance. At 1 point during our visit, a person became anxious. A staff member demonstrated empathy, compassion and understanding. The person explained this approach had been helpful. They became more settled and made plans for a music activity with the staff member later that day. The staff member explained how music provided the person comfort.

Staff had responded when people became unwell and taken appropriate action.

Not all staff felt supported. We received anonymous concerns from staff who told us they did not always feel able to express their views and were not listened to. Some staff felt unsupported in developing their careers. Some staff had concerns about their pay. We discussed these issues with the management team. There had been recent changes at the service when the current provider took over management and changes within the structure of the staff team. This had impacted on some staff wellbeing. Managers were aware of this and explained some of the actions they were taking. These included inviting the human resources team in to talk with staff and senior managers holding individual meetings with staff. They told us they recognised further steps were needed to help provide staff with assurances and the information they needed.

All staff had access to the provider’s policies, procedures, training, information about good practice and webinars through an application and the staff intranet, which they could access from home as well as their workplace.

Other staff told us they felt well supported. They explained they worked well together and with managers. A member of staff commented, “All the staff are so supportive of each other.”