The Pines

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 this key question was rated good. At this assessment it remained good. This meant people’s needs were met through good organisation and delivery.

People were central to the care they received and their care and support plans were tailor made to their individual and diverse needs. People’s choices were listened to. People had access to the local community and meaningful employment and activities. The risk of inequalities was being assessed and reduced. There was an accessible complaints procedure in place and people’s comments were listened to and addressed.

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 made sure people were at the centre of their care and treatment choices and they decided, in partnership with people, how to respond to any relevant changes in people’s needs.

People’s care plans were tailor made to each individual, identifying their diverse and unique needs and preferences. The records guided staff in how to ensure people’s choices in how they wanted to be cared for were respected. People told us they were consulted about their care needs and how they were met.

People were treated as individuals throughout our visits. People’s choices were respected, for example, a person had a planned activity booked, and decided they did not want to go, this was respected with no question and an alternative was planned, they wanted to go for a walk instead. The activity was a tour of the area on a rickshaw, other people were offered the opportunity to use the resource and this was keenly taken up. A person told us how they had been on the rickshaw before and liked it and were going on it again.

People had a weekly activity planned which they had drawn up and planned with staff. However, as well as the planner, there were also ad hoc activities and outings. Each person had an active life and had access to meaningful activity both inside the service and in the community, both individually and as a group. Some people had employment, one being employed by the provider, for example, to deliver staff training. People attended various clubs and workshops, both individually and with each other. People’s individual interests were encouraged and ways of introducing meaningful activity to meet with their interests were discussed with people. A staff member told us a person liked trains, the person told us how they were planning outing on a train to a city and once they got there, they were having lunch. They listed what they were going to eat and the outing clearly made them happy as they were smiling when they were telling us.

People did individual activities inside the service, such as jigsaw puzzles, listening to music, using their electronic devices, and various arts and crafts which were displayed in their personal space and shared areas.

For people’s birthdays, they chose what they wanted to do on the day and what food they wanted. This had been suggested and agreed by people in a meeting. People had chosen various things to do including a barbecue in the garden inviting the other people from the service and their relatives.

Most of the people had lived together for many years and had formed strong friendships. A person’s relative said their family member was always busy, “They went to the Suffolk Show, [family member] goes to the cinema, Bury St Edmunds, they watch TV… there’s definitely good interaction between staff and the residents.” During one of our visits, a group of people went to the seaside and some went out for lunch to the local pub. The seaside trip was for a person’s birthday and they had chosen hot dogs and chocolate cake for their evening meal for everyone, people had told us it was a party. During the preparation of the meal a person said they preferred a burger to a hot dog, in response the staff quickly got burgers and these were also provided.

The provider understood the diverse health and care needs of people and their local communities, so care was joined-up, flexible and supported choice and continuity.

People’s records included information about their history and diverse needs and how these may impact on their day to day living. Individual behaviour support plans were in place which identified how people may be become distressed and anxious and how this was mitigated. People’s choices were listened to and acted on and their hopes for the future were identified, including in the service and in the community. This supported the staff to deliver consistent person-centred care and to remove barriers people may face to living full and active lives. People told us they had access to the local community, including the local pub, café and leisure centre.

We did identify that people’s daily notes, which showed what people had done each day and the care and support provided, did not always include how they had presented throughout the day. The management team told us this had been identified and a new system to show how people were was in the process of being introduced.

Staff had been trained in people’s diverse needs, this included training in equality and diversity and learning disability and autism to support them to understand people’s needs.

The provider supplied appropriate, accurate and up-to-date information in formats that were tailored to individual needs.

People’s care plans included information about how they communicated and any specific requirements they had in the way information was shared with them, such as easy read and audio formats, which could be provided to ensure people had access to information which could be understood.

People’s care plans included information about how they communicated. We observed staff communicated with people effectively in line with their care plans.

The provider made it easy for people to share feedback and ideas, or raise complaints about their care, treatment and support. Staff involved people in decisions about their care and told them what had changed as a result.

There was a complaints procedure in place and complaints were managed in line with the procedure, this included the timescales set for investigation and response. Records of complaints were maintained, and included actions taken, however, there had been only one formal complaint received in 2024. A member of the management team told us how concerns, which had not developed into formal complaint were addressed quickly. For example, previously to reduce a family member’s concerns the regional director had weekly telephone discussions with them.

Relatives told us how improvements had been made in the service with the new manager, this included confidence that their concerns would be listened to and addressed. We saw compliments recently received from a person’s relative about how changes made in the service were positive.

Meetings were held for people using the service, where they were asked if they had any concerns they wished to discuss. These were listened to and addressed promptly. People told us they could raise any concerns with staff and each person had a named key worker who they could speak with if needed.

The manager told us some people had an advocate who they met with regularly and if concerns were raised through their advocate, this would be addressed.

The provider made sure that people could access the care, support and treatment they needed when they needed it.

The environment was accessible for people who used, for example, equipment to mobilise, which was regularly safety checked. .

Equipment was available to ensure people received the care and support they required. For example, there was clock in one of the shared areas, but not all people could read this, to reduce people’s anxiety about what the time was a talking clock had recently been purchased. People showed us the clock and how it worked.

Where staff had concerns about people’s wellbeing referrals were made to health care professionals to ensure they could access the care and treatment they required. This included the GP and dentist, which people could access in the community. Any treatment and referrals were incorporated in the care plans to ensure consistency of care and support. Where a person was distressed by receiving treatment, which was a barrier, the manager had worked with external professionals and had a plan in place to gradually introduce the support to the person. They told us about how this had been successful and was ongoing, with the person slowly trusting the team and sometimes allowing them to increase the support.

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.

Policies and procedures were in place relating to people’s human rights and equity. People’s documents included their care needs relating to their diversity and guidance was provided to staff in how the care provision was tailored to meet their needs to reduce the risks of discrimination and inequality. Staff were trained and aware of their responsibilities in reporting concerns should they identify incidents which may indicate neglect or abuse.

The regional director told us how the provider referred to ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to ensure people with a learning disability and autistic people received respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities, in all aspects of the care provision and governance systems.

People were supported to plan for important life changes, so they could have enough time to make informed decisions about their future, including at the end of their life.

People’s care plans included their end-of-life decisions and the decisions they had made should they become ill. For people who could verbally communicate their wishes and had chosen to discuss them, every aspect of end of life care had been explored, and was written in people’s own words, this ranged from where they wished to be cared for, what staff could do to make them feel comfortable, such as playing music in their room, who they wanted with them and the arrangements for their funeral. This clearly demonstrated a trust in the staff to discuss this subject and a commitment from staff to ensure people’s voices would be heard. For other people, the subject had been raised with relatives, such as if there were a sudden change to their wellbeing and where people were not ready to discuss this a note was made that this would be reviewed.

The manager told us how they were planning to discuss with commissioners of the service how they could ensure some people who had lived in the service for many years, and were getting older, could remain in the home they knew and with the people they cared for.