Westmead

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 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 people and colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. In our observations, we saw positive and relaxed interactions between people and staff. Relatives shared that staff were kind. A relative told us, "I don't know that many staff very well, but the ones that I've seen looking after [person], you know the heart is in the right place. They are very, very caring people because [person] is a very difficult person to look after. Other relative said, “Yes, they are definitely kind. When I have been there in the past the way the staff engaged with [person] it is just lovely, they use humour and engaged in a very sociable way, it is one of their strengths.”

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure 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. During our assessment, we observed a couple of examples when staff spoke about 1 person’s communication and behaviour in a way that was not centred around this person’s needs. We discussed this with the management team who told us about the ongoing work needed and being undertaken to improve staff culture and training, and work had also been done to address issues with individual members of staff.

The registered manager had developed workshops for staff focusing on the care and support each individual person living at the home required; this allowed staff to receive individualized training on how best to support each person.

People were supported by staff to maintain their independence. Staff knew people well and were able to communicate with them effectively to enable them to make choices. We observed staff using different communication approaches to communicate with people and support them to make choices. The service had developed specific goals with people that were meaningful to what they enjoyed and mattered to them; these were described in detail in people’s care plans and implemented by staff. At our last assessment, we found concerns about some people accessing the community. During this assessment, we found people were supported to engage in activities in their community which promoted and supported their independence, health and wellbeing. We found evidence of this in people’s records of care, observations and feedback from relatives. One relative told us, “It's really hard to occupy [person], because [person] doesn't particularly like having people in [their] flat, but staff will go in and do activities with them as long as [person] will tolerate them. But they do like to be out, out, out. So, they seem to get up and give [person] breakfast, then take [person] out. Come back for lunch, take [person] out, come back for tea and then take [person] out for the evening. Which [person] is happy with.” Other relative told us about how their loved one had been supported to be independent with having a shower and they added, “You see little things like, asking for something to eat, helping to get a plate, starting to do the cooking, making pizzas and cooked peppers. [Name of registered manager] involvement not only as a manager, but they have come down to spend time and do this activity, showing an example to the staff. [Name of registered manager] got to see how [person] likes to chop [their] vegetables.”

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.

We observed staff actively engaging with people and working proactively to meet people’s immediate needs. For example, people’s behaviours linked to pain levels were noted and monitored by staff; we found examples of staff discussing with senior staff or the registered manager what they were observing and, when required, administering people ‘as and when required’ medication to relieve pain.

Relatives shared mixed feedback about staff and their skills to meet people’s needs. Their comments included, “Not fully [have the skills], no. They are getting the team back around [person], I know they are trying to work on that. My worry would be how confident the staff would be” and “I think the staff do have the necessary knowledge and skills. Where I may say things like specialist knowledge for example, understanding somebody who's got sensory needs, understanding more medical things like [specific medical condition]. The service has bought in training for the [specific medical condition] and so [person’s] team can access those things.”

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

Staff we spoke with as part of this assessment felt Westmead was a good place to work. Staff told us they felt communication and management at the service had improved, and their voice was heard and respected by managers.

Staff well-being was valued and supported by a variety of internal processes made available by the provider. For example, there was a programme available to support staff who were care workers who wished to progress to become senior care workers. There were mechanisms in place to celebrate employee success and boost morale. For example, each month, 1 employee was named employee of the month, and their success was celebrated throughout the care home. Staff could send to each other “thanks” and the staff member who received more was also celebrated. The registered manager had implemented a programme of activities that engaged staff and people celebrating specific dates; staff shared positive feedback about these activities.