Olive Tree Services

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 Outstanding. At this assessment the rating has changed to 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.

People told us staff were caring. Comments included, “They [staff] are lovely”, “Yes, they [staff] are very caring, look after [person] well” and “They are courteous and kind, caring and well trained.”

Staff spoke with care and compassion about the people they supported and demonstrated a shared commitment to providing good care. A staff member said, “I promote [people’s] dignity by respecting their privacy.”

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.

Care staff understood people’s preferences and wishes. Care plan’s contained good information to support staff to ensure people’s needs and preferences were understood. There were detailed individual plans which gave a holistic picture of the person.

One relative told us, “They [staff] are responsive to them [person] and treats them as an individual. They don’t decide what is best for [person], [person] will tell them.”

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

People who had the capacity to choose, felt they had control over day-to-day choices. The provider and staff had built up good relationships with families, so they had a good understanding of what preferences people might like, even when they were unable to choose themselves. Care planning set out people’s preferences in terms of where they wanted to receive care, where possible. One person told us, “They [staff] give support and understand my needs. I’m involved in what they do and when they do it.”

The provider ensured staff responded promptly, in the moment, when people needed help. Staff listened to people views and wishes and acted on them.

When people changed their minds, for instance, choosing how they wanted to spend their time, staff were responsive to this. Staff were patient and helped people communicate their needs. Staff responded to people’s immediate needs. One person told us, “Very nice and helpful. In my opinion they [staff] are absolutely marvellous.” A relative commented, “I will call with any concerns. [Registered manager] will make changes straight away.”

Staff made prompt referrals to healthcare professionals when required. External professionals raised no concerns about the responsiveness of staff or leaders in terms of their oversight of people’s needs and how they responded to them.

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

Staff felt well supported by leaders. Their comments included, “I have regular supervision with my manager I find it very helpful”, “We have meetings in the office where we can always clarify any questions we have regarding our performance and better ways to support our clients [people] and families. We also have videos and photos from the management team to explainthe best way to do a task, and we can ask for help if we have any questions” and “I feel I have a voice in the service, and I express my opinions through supervision, team meetings, and by speaking openly with management.”

The provider recognised and acted on the recruitment and retention challenges faced in social care. They did everything practicable to ensure the staff they employed understood the benefits and challenges of working in social care.

New staff received appropriate induction, supervision, training and support from experienced staff.