Fernside Hall Care Home

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 requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to 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.

People told us they felt their privacy and dignity needs were met by staff. When we asked one person about this they said, “Yes, they treat me well. They knock before they come in.” When issues around attention to people’s personal hygiene needs which affected dignity had been raised as an issue in a relative’s meeting, this had been addressed with staff. Staff told us they had seen improvements in how people were supported. A relative told us about how their family member’s dignity needs were prioritised.

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.

At our last assessment we identified concerns in relation to people’s protected characteristics, including religious and cultural needs, being met. This had been addressed and care plans had been developed to reflect these needs and what actions needed to be taken to make sure they were met. Staff knew people well and engaged them in conversations relevant to their interests and lifestyles.

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

People were positive about being supported to follow their own routines and make choices. One person told us how staff understood their need to be independent despite their physical restrictions but were always available to support them when needed. Care plans reflected how staff should encourage people to maintain their abilities and therefore encourage their independence. Managers told us about how a person who used to live at the service had chosen and been supported to move to another of the provider’s services after spending some time there and finding the facilities at that service matched their needs and allowed them to be much more independent. The results of a recent quality survey for people living at the service were positive in relation to promoting choice and independence. We received mixed feedback about the activities on offer. Although most people enjoyed them, others said they would like to get outside more.

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.

All the people we spoke to were positive about staff’s response to them calling or buzzing for help. One person said, “We have a buzzer in our room, they come quickly, if I press it.” We saw staff responding very quickly to buzzers.

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

When we spoke with staff at our last assessment, some told us that morale was low because they did not feel supported, communication was not always good, and the staff team was depleted because people had left. On this assessment staff told us things had very much changed for the better because of the stable management team. One said, “From where it was last year it is like night and day. There has been a lot of hard work and there have been hiccups but apart from some small errors the morale is brilliant.”

Staff felt supported, included and listened to. The manager had shared the findings of our last assessment with staff and explained how improvements would be made as a team and had shown their appreciation of staff’s work with events including a pizza party. Staff had access to the provider’s confidential employee assistance line which was in place for staff to access various means of support.