St Saviours Road

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 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 knew people well and how best to support them. We observed a warmth in the interactions between people and staff. People’s relatives spoke very positively about the relationship between staff and their loved ones. One person’s relative said, “The staff are all lovely and we are very happy with them. They are very caring.”

Staff spoke with us about how they ensured people’s privacy and dignity, and we observed staff supporting people to ensure their dignity was maintained. A professional told us, “The staff interact very well with service users, and consistently demonstrate kindness, patience, and professionalism. From my observations, people are treated with dignity and respect, and staff conduct themselves in a professional manner at all times.”

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.

Menus were decided by people weekly at the house meeting and each person had the opportunity to choose a meal that they would like. Each week one person had the opportunity to choose a Sunday roast and a takeaway meal for another evening. If anyone did not like the menu choice, they were able to ask for an alternative. Meetings were also used to decide where people went on their activity day. We observed the house meeting and assessed that the process could be enhanced further if preparation was done in advance of the meeting to have ideas for people to choose from and enable them to make more informed choices. We discussed this with the manager and the head of operations, and they acknowledged this could be improved further.

Each person had a keyworker who they met with on a regular basis and a record was made of the outcome. Records included information about wellbeing, activities, goals, health, and contact with family. People’s families valued the regular contact with staff and the updates they received.

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Each person had their own preferences in relation to how they spent their time. The home was busy, reflecting people’s active lives. Everyone attended college courses 2 to 3 days a week. College courses varied each term. The brochure was sent to the home, and people chose what they wanted to do. Current courses include science and experiments, and cooking, but people had also attended media studies, arts and crafts, music, and maths.

Each person had a day out each week to places of interest to them. There were opportunities for people to go out for meals and café trips, shopping for personal items and everyone had the opportunity to have an annual holiday.

People were encouraged to take part in tasks around the home such as laying and clearing the table, loading the dishwasher, making their bed and doing laundry. Everyone could make their own drinks as needed, prepared sandwiches and helped with food preparation for the evening meal.

Staff supported people to maintain important links with family and friends. One person had a mobile phone. People, met with or visited their relatives and where needed staff support was provided. Phone calls were also facilitated. A person wrote to their relatives twice a week. They told staff what they wanted to say, and staff wrote this on paper, then the person typed the message and sent this to their relatives.

People’s routines were very important to them. A person liked their routine to be strictly adhered to. Staff told us that when agency or bank staff worked this could present some issues, but the person was more inclined to tell staff what needed to be done next. This person’s care plan included very clear information about the person’s chosen order of activities.

A person loved walking by rivers and woodland and liked to choose which route to take on day trips. Trips included buses or trains to get to the chosen destination. A staff member told us that occasionally the person liked to take binoculars with them so that they could look at animals in the distance. They also enjoyed using a telescope. One person liked going to the pub for a game of pool.

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.

One person received funding to have 1 to 1 staff, so staff could respond quickly to the person’s needs and wishes. In the mornings there were often 3 staff so people could do what they wanted. In the afternoons there were 2 staff so if people wanted to do different activities there was often a bit of compromise. Turn taking was very much part of the day and people knew they sometimes needed to wait their turn for specific activities.

There were generally enough staff to be able to respond in the moment to specific requests for activities and to be spontaneous in what they did. The day before our site visit, the weather had been good, so staff prepared dinner and took it with them, and everyone went to a local scenic spot and had their picnic there.

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

The manager and deputy manager were a fairly new team. They told us they were working on creating a supportive place for staff to work. Staff told us they felt supported and could go to either the manager or the deputy when they needed advice, guidance, or support. Staff received regular supervision and told us they did not need to wait for supervision as they knew the door was always open if they had any concerns or worries.

A staff member told us that in an emergency they called the deputy manager for advice. The deputy came to the home and stayed with them until the situation was resolved. They valued the support provided to them. All staff attended regular supervision and had opportunities to discuss their development and raise any concerns, including those relating to their own health and wellbeing. Staff meetings were also an opportunity for staff to share their views on the running of the home.