Friary 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. At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has changed to requires improvement. This meant people were not always feel well-supported, cared for or treated with dignity and respect.

This service scored 55 (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.

We observed people appeared relaxed and at ease when supported by staff. Staff knew people's non-verbal and behaviour cues and offered reassurance and used distraction techniques to defuse escalating conflict between people.

A relative told us, “Yes, they are kind and respectful to the residents. When Mum became incontinent it was quite distressing for her as she is a very private person, however the staff are always very supportive and kind when they help her and provide constant reassurance.” A staff member told us, “I ensure I give care with dignity, respect and kindness.” A professional told us, “the overall feel of the care home is very welcoming and homely”.

The provider did not always treat people as individuals or make sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They did not always take account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Care plans did not always include personal preferences, people’s likes and dislikes, their goals, aspirations and wishes. For example, regarding drinks preferences, any support with emotional and psychological needs around difficulties with behaviour, peoples day and night routines or how to support independence with mobility.

A person told us, “pictures here are from my home and mean something to me”. A staff member told us that there were going to spend time with people to understand their background and what is important to them and include this in their care plans.A professional told us, “Patients are supported to bring items in from home including pets.” We found people had brought items of their choice from home and a person had a pet in their bedroom.

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.

People were not always empowered to have as much control over their lives as possible. For example, review meetings that involved staff and people were not held. People were not involved in decisions about their care and support and were at risk of not receiving person-centred care.

We found relatives visited their loved ones and spent time with them. A person told us, “Yes, they leave me to do it and wait until I ask or if I am really struggling, which I am grateful. It’s a good thing as I want to be as independent as I can.”

A staff member told us, “Friary house is amazing at supporting and encouraging independence with the residents. We continuously encourage our residents to do as much for themselves before staff assist.”

The provider did not always listen to and understand people’s needs, views and wishes.Staff did not always respond to people’s needs in the moment or act to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

We observed 2 people were unsupervised in the lounge for a period of time. One of them was becoming increasingly unsettled and had been actively looking for staff. We were not assured peoples pain was managed effectively and at the point of need as there was no care plan in place for administering pain relief medication when needed. Staff worked with minimal guidance when supporting people with pain management.

A person told us, “I leave my door open. [Staff member] is extremely accessible.” People also told us that staff responded to their call bells within a reasonable time. The registered manager told us that their call bell system does not enable them to establish how long call bells rang before staff responded and that, “if they had been ringing for more than 5 minutes then I would normally go”. The provider did not carry out spot checks at night but told us they did at weekends; however, these were not recorded.

The provider did not always care about and promote the wellbeing of their staff. They did not always support or enable staff to deliver person-centred care.

There were no systems or processes in place to gather staff feedback such as surveys or questionnaires. Staff did not have access to regular training and staff supervision to support them in order to carry out their roles.

We received mixed feedback from staff about the support they received. Some staff told us that they felt that at times there was not enough staff on duty and that there can be a lot of over time to cover as they do not use agency staff. A staff member also told us, “Although staff [members] work together, I think there could be more delegation of tasks on shifts”. However other staff told us, “I definitely know we are appreciated. [Registered manager] and the management regularly remind us of this and thank us for are hard work. Management like to show their appreciation for us with gifts, cakes and messages. The staff are well supported by [registered manager], and they are always there for us if we have any concerns. [Registered manager] is the person I will go to if I have any questions or worried and they are quick to answer, reassure me or sort the problem.”