Archived: Defoe Court

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 outstanding. At this assessment the rating has been rated good. This meant people felt well-supported, cared for and treated with dignity and respect.

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 treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and in how they respected people’s privacy and dignity. People consistently spoke positively about the kind and caring nature of staff and how this led to them providing the highest quality care. One person told us, "I didn't want to be in a care home, I was devastated when I first woke up here. But it is a place that will do anything for you, they bend over backward to help. The staff are all lovely, they do whatever you want and always have a smile on their faces." Relatives also spoke very positively about the kind and compassionate support provided by staff, which helped people to maintain and enhance their sense of dignity and wellbeing. One relative said, “I have been in lots (of care homes) in my job over 40 years, this is one of the best…The staff are very caring, always very friendly. You can see they are sincere, they just have a caring way about them. They have given [named person] a good quality of life.” Staff always treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. Healthcare partners told us this was consistent with the high- quality care and support they saw staff delivering to people. One healthcare partner said, “I go into a few homes, and this is one of the top ones.”

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. People and relatives told us staff made a sincere and effective effort to get to know people very well and used this information to provide highly effective and empowering care. One relative told us, “"[Named person] has absolutely flourished in there… She is hard to engage with, but they worked really hard and patiently and have tailored activities to her interests. They tailor things to individuals.” During our visit we saw that staff were very alert to people’s needs and offered tailored support that reflected their individual choices. For example, people were encouraged to do as much as they possibly could for themselves with staff knowing effective ways to support this. The provider took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. Care was personalised and effective. One healthcare partner told us, "It is a pleasure to work alongside the care team at Defoe Court ensuring patient receive the appropriate individualised care."

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. People and relatives told us the care people received was based on their choices and that they felt in control. One person told us how they structured their day around things they liked to do, and that staff had adapted their own routines to help the person in this.

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. During our visit we saw staff acted quickly and effectively to support people when this was needed, which helped to maintain people’s sense of safety and wellbeing.

The provider always cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported staff to always deliver person-centred care. Staff were eager to share their feedback with us and felt a real sense of ownership over a service they were proud to work at. One member of staff said, “It's a great place to work.I find everyone supportive including management, whether its work related or on a personal level, the office is always open…We work well as a team across the board, may sound cheesy but we are a family. Putting residents’ needs and dignity first." Another told us, “Defoe Court are an amazing team that provide many things from the kindest end of life care (and afterwards for families) they make sure our family of residents have a clean,friendly,enriched life with activities to look forward to." Staff spoke particularly highly of the successful teamwork at the service and described how everyone worked effectively together to provide high-quality care. A member of staff said, “All staff members in our home (from all departments) help each other out when needed.Management are fantastic.” Staff were clearly very committed to the welfare and care of people, going above and beyond what was expected to promote this. For example, some staff had recently worked together to complete a charity walk to raise money for additional activities at the service. A relative said, “We are very happy with Defoe, the staff are marvellous and work extremely hard…They all work well as a team and you can see how they all get on and help each other out.”