Dignus Support

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 ensured people were treated with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Relatives told us they felt people were supported by kind and caring staff. A relative told us, “I think they’re very good, caring and concerned about [person’s name] they look after them very well.” Staff told us they had time to get to know people and talked about people in a kind and caring way. Partners told us staff were kind and compassionate and the feedback they received from family members and other professionals showed this.Leaders told us they were confident staff treated people with kindness and respected their privacy and dignity. They said people formed relationships with their staff team as they ensured through the matching process staff were able to support people with their individual interests. The provider had systems in place to do spot checks on people’s care and had regular discussions with staff in their supervisions, competency assessments also took account of people’s right to privacy and treating people with empathy and compassion.

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. Relatives told us people were supported as individuals and staff understood their needs and preferences. A relative said, “The staff are very good at getting [person’s name] to achieve things.” The relative shared an example of how staff had supported their relative to achieve something recently which the person had been very proud of. When asked if staff treated people with respect and dignity. A relative told us, “Yes, they do, if they didn’t [person’s name] would let me and them know.” Staff told us they understood people’s needs and preferences and could give examples of information they used about people’s preferences to ensure they had the support they needed. Leaders told us assessments and care plans had individual preferences included and this considered any protected characteristics. Care plans gave information about people’s preferences for meals, activities and places which interested them. Information was also included around protected characteristics, including their religious preferences, sexuality, and cultural preferences.

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. Relatives told us staff worked with people to ensure they were supported to maintain their independence. A relative told us, “[Person’s name] wants to be very independent, but they can’t always be with everything, and the staff get the balance right with that.” Staff told us they worked with people to encourage and promote independence and could give examples of where people did things for themselves and needed help to maintain their independence. Leaders told us they had systems in place to ensure people had their independence promoted. Care plans were written to indicate what people could do for themselves and any support they may need. Care plans also referenced how people should be supported to make choices. Records showed people had control over their day-to-day life, making decisions about where to go and what to do with their time.

The provider had systems in place to ensure peoples immediate needs were met. Staff told us people had access to staff support whenever they needed it, describing regular checks done to ensure people were ok, and they felt able to respond to people’s immediate needs. Leaders told us there was support available to people 24 hours a day. People were able to source support when they needed it, they could call staff and ask for help. There was also an arrangement in place to access additional staff if needed from another service nearby in the event of any emergency.

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff. Staff were supported and enabled to carry out their role and deliver person-centred care. Staff told us they felt well supported and had regular opportunities to speak with their manager about their role. Leaders told us staff wellbeing was considered, and they had a range of systems and policies in place to support staff. We saw staff had access to regular team meetings and supervisions and they were able to discuss any important matters in these sessions. There was an equality and diversity policy in place. Leaders told us they felt it was important to have staff feedback about how they could make the role better for staff. There was a system being introduced to gather staff views and include this in feedback on the service.