Yorhealth (Supported Living) Ltd - Midlands

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 remained 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 were supported by staff who were kind and caring and respected their privacy and dignity. A relative told us, “The staff are really kind, they really do love [person’s name]. They are always laughing with them, and they love it.” Another relative told us, “The staff respect [person’s name] and my house. If they didn’t, I would ask them to leave. The staff are friendly and work as a team.” We visited people in their homes and saw staff were interacting with people. People were comfortable with the staff, and we saw staff protected people’s privacy. Partners told us they had no concerns relating to people’s dignity and staff conduct. They said their observations of staff showed people were treated with respect, kindness and a caring and supportive environment was fostered by staff. Leaders had systems in place through weekly unannounced visits to speak with people and staff and observe how staff interacted with people and contact through surveys and other systems with relatives. Leaders told us this was how they ensured people were supported by caring staff teams.

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. Relatives told us about how staff supported people to follow their individual interests and access the community and had their individual needs met and gave examples. A relative told us, “As they are getting older, they need more time with personal care and getting dressed. It just takes longer for them and this has been discussed.” Another relative told us, “[Person’s name] has rice cakes with spread for breakfast, and a couple of eggs. They are under the dietician, and the staff follow the guidelines. They keep an eye on their weight now.” Staff could describe how they supported people with their cultural, social and religious needs. We saw these preferences were documented for staff in people’s care plans. Leaders told us they incorporated information about peoples protected characteristics into their care plans. For example, information about individual culture informed their preferences for personal care and meals and how they were supported with religious practices.

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. People were supported to maintain their independence. A relative told us, “The staff always explain what they are going to do with [person’s name, and encourage then to do things for themselves, such as getting dressed.”Another relative told us, “[Person’s name] might help with chopping vegetables, and they can make a cup of tea, the staff are teaching [person’s name] to use the cappuccino machine.”Staff could describe how they supported people to communicate and make choices. One staff member told us, “We are able to help [person’s name] with cooking and cleaning, they enjoy cleaning the windows and gets involved, [person’s name] does their own laundry with some support.” The provider told us they focussed on helping people remain as independent as possible and improve independence where they can. The provider gave the example of how they helped people improve their skills in the kitchen using goal focussed support plans.People’s communication needs were understood by staff, and we saw they followed the information in peoples care plans to support communication.

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 told us there was always someone with people, so they were able to attend to people’s needs immediately. They described peoples care plans which guided how they should support people who may become distressed. One staff member said, “People have a positive behaviour support plan in place, this helps us to anticipate people’s needs and we can distract and change focus to something positive before people become distressed.” Staff told us the plans worked to reduce the incidents of distress for people and were continually reviewed. Leaders told us people had support 24 hours a day and there were always staff available to meet people’s needs. Staffing levels were agreed for each individual based on their individual care plans to ensure there were enough staff available to meet immediate needs.

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. The provider had systems in place to support staff. Leaders told us staff had access to regular supervisions. They said staff had individual risk assessments for medical needs put in place and access to a helpline is available for employee assistance program. The program included support with counselling and advice for staff. Staff told us the provider had good support systems in place. One staff member told us, “We have lots of support, then management team are very supportive, always on hand. We can access free therapy; you can use an application on your phone to have 8 free sessions of counselling I have accessed and its helpful.”