Aspen Gardens

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 newly registered service. This key question has been rated 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. Staff respected people’s privacy and took care to maintain people’s dignity when delivering personal care. A person told us that staff were, “Very kind and very caring, they do anything for you.” Staff spoke with care and compassion about the people they supported and demonstrated a shared commitment to providing good care.

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. People’s preferences and individual support needs were documented and shared with staff. 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. People were supported with their religious needs; there were religious groups who came to the extra care scheme to support people’s worship. A person said, “They [staff] have the care plan on their phones, so yes, I would say that they understand me."

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. Independence and choice were promoted in people’s care records and staff had a good understanding of the importance of people being in control of their care. People were able to choose where they had meals, they could have a communal main meal each day in the bistro or have a meal provided in their homes. Staff supported people to access the onsite facilities such as assisted bathrooms and hair and nail salons. People had access to a communal garden, people had until recently been supported to care for chickens, but the garden was now being redeveloped. People had a choice of places where they could enjoy social support, such as a communal lounge and “memory” room, in addition to the lounges in their own apartments or bungalows. People were supported to be as independent as possible, and retain or gain new skills, for example there was a popular onsite “knit and natter” group.

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.

There were enough staff to respond to planned care and respond should people need support outside of this. If people needed care in an emergency, they could summon help using personal alarms and staff could respond quickly.

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

Staff felt well supported by leaders. They told us they had supervisions, appraisals and meetings to support their wellbeing and discuss the delivery of care. A staff member said, “We have regular staff meetings where we can discuss any concerns, incidents, problems, worries or suggestions about care.”

The provider had resources staff could access to support their wellbeing and mental health, for example support from mental health first aiders. There was a company wide staff recognition scheme. Within the service there was an action plan focusing on staff appreciation, development and wellbeing.