Crows Nest

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence.

At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has remained good.

This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 71 (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 made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

People took part in completing their own care plans, a relative also told us that they were able to see these if requested. Staff told us that records were updated regularly and said if they had new information, care plans would be added to.

Care plans were highly detailed and contained information about people’s physical health, emotional wellbeing and communication needs. There was a schedule in place for them to be reviewed.

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

People told us that they trusted staff. We observed interactions between people and staff; they were confident and competent when providing support.

People were supported well with nutrition and hydration, we observed healthy choices being offered, staff used a portion guide to make sure that people were offered a nutritious, balanced diet. This included dietician input and bespoke diets for people with a medical requirement.

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services.

Staff work with other services and commissioners to prevent or reduce the need for admissions to hospital. Each person was registered with a dentist, podiatrist, optician and GP. The GP contacted the provider weekly to check people’s continuing health needs.

One person told us that they had a recent series of falls, the provider supported them to have balance checks, hearing and blood tests to rule out medical issues. They were supported to rearrange their room and had their risk assessment and care plan updated to enable them to remain at home.

People had hospital passports which were kept up to date and reviewed regularly, this meant that if they were admitted to hospital details of their key support needs would go with them.

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support.

People were supported to be as independent as possible; they were able to leave the premises when they wanted to. People were encouraged to take part in activities outside of the premises to support them to maintain good physical and mental health, one person told us that they volunteer at a local community garden and with litter picking around their area.

People were given healthy meal choices and had an ‘eating well’ plate to guide them with portion sizes.

People had access to annual health and medication checks and other health monitoring processes.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves.

People were engaged in planning for the future. One person was planning a holiday, and they had made choices over where would like to go and with whom.

People were encouraged to take part in activities to support them to have a meaningful life. One person said they like to be helpful in their community, so had been supported to join an art group, a history group and other community-based groups, they had formed relationships independent of the provider which improved the quality of their life.

The provider did not always tell people about their rights around consent and did not always respect their rights when delivering care and treatment.

The provider had informed people of their rights in some areas such as care and treatment and consent for photographs to be taken but had not sought consent around areas such as medication administration and managing finances.

People had capacity assessments in areas where necessary and had worked in partnership with the local authority to complete these.

Staff we spoke with understood mental capacity, one said. “It’s about people being able to make decisions, having all the information that they need.”