Dignus Support

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

Responsive – this means we looked for evidence that the provider met people’s needs.At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has remained good. This meant people’s needs were met through good organisation and delivery.

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 received person-centred care and were responsive to changes in people’s needs. Relatives told us people were supported to maintain their interests and access the community. A relative told us, “The staff encourage [person’s name], and they go out quite a bit, they like walking, going to the cinema and into the local town. [Person’s name] has a good life and doesn’t ever seem bored.” Staff told us the care plans in place for people guided them on people’s individual preferences and gave the example of preferences in place for personal care, being very important to understand for 1 person as this impacted on their wider health if not followed. Leaders told us the assessments and care plans in place considered individual preferences including peoples protected characteristics. We saw records showed consideration about people’s culture, religion and sexuality for example. People were involved in designing the care plans in place and these took account of their preferences. For example, care plans included preferences around, personal care, meals, how people spent their time and covered what was important to people. There was clear guidance in place for staff on things which could upset people and how to phrase things when speaking to people.

The provider worked with other agencies to provide joined-up, flexible care and support ensuring continuity. Staff told us they worked with other professionals as required to ensure people received the care they needed. Leaders told us they worked closely with other partners to ensure people’s needs were met. Partners confirmed the management team always liaised with relevant partners.

The provider supplied appropriate, accurate and up-to-date information in formats that were tailored to individual needs. People had their communication needs assessed, and plans were in place to guide staff on how to meet their individual communication needs. Staff could describe in detail how they supported people with their communication needs. A staff member described people may need additional processing time when staff speak to them. They also described the importance of eye contact and ensuring people were actively engaged in the communication before speaking and the importance of using short simple sentences. Leaders told us they had a policy in place to ensure individual needs for communication were considered and access to a wider support team was available if needed to provide suitable information. Care plans gave advice to staff on how much processing time people may need, and the importance of using their facial expressions and phrases which would help people understand what was being said.

The provider had systems in place for people to share feedback and ideas, or raise complaints about their care, treatment and support. Relatives told us they understood how to make a complaint and felt people would be able to raise concerns if they needed to. A relative told us, “I would go to the registered manager if there was something serious to raise.” Staff told us they understood the complaints system and if anyone raised concerns with them, they would document this in the electronic care records and raise it with the registered manager for investigation. Leaders told us there was a compliments and complaints process in place. We saw where complaints had been received these were investigated and a response was given to the complainant. Lessons were learned from complaints and shared with staff. Leaders told us the provider had introduced a forum for people using the service to attend, with other people who used services from across the provider group. The forum aimed to enable people using the services to have a voice and share their thoughts and ideas about the service. This was planned to start later in the month and people were described as excited to participate.

The provider made sure that people could access the care, support and treatment they needed when they needed it. Relatives told us staff supported people to access other services such as the dentist. Staff gave examples of how the hospital passport helped them support people to access appointments and health action plans ensured people had regular health screening. Leaders told us they had systems in place to ensure they identified and removed barriers to people having their needs for care and support met. They gave the example of how the health action plans in place helped to remove barriers sometimes experienced by people with a learning disability accessing health care and health screening. The individual plans people had in place gave information on how to ensure they had their health needs met.

Staff and leaders actively listened to information about people who are most likely to experience inequality in experience or outcomes and tailored their care, support and treatment in response to this. Relatives told us staff supported and encouraged people to achieve things. Staff told us they worked with people to meet their goals and make improvements to their life using their care and support plans to set out how to achieve the things they wanted to achieve. Partners told us, people were supported to advocate for themselves and access all relevant opportunities.Leaders told us they supported people to plan to meet their desired outcomes. They shared examples of helping people access college to learn a skill and equipment to support improving fitness. There were also examples of people being supported to visit places of interest as a goal and to make new friends. The provider’s systems ensured people had plans in place to achieve the things which were important to them.

The provider had systems in place to support people to plan for important life changes. Leaders and staff told us there was nobody who required end of life care planning at the time of the inspection. However, they were aware of what this would involve and said systems were in place to consider this should it become required. Leaders told us people were encouraged to make plans and gave examples of people who had been supported to make changes to their life and set personal goals for their future which staff would help them to achieve. Care plans supported what we were told.