Alexandras Community Care Truro

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.

People described staff as friendly, caring, and respectful. Many said carers were attentive to privacy and treated them with dignity, particularly during personal care. One commented, “They don't rush me; they draw the curtains, close the door; they're very mindful of my privacy.”Care plans contained positive information about people, one read, ‘Everyone who meets [pronoun] is touched by their kindness and infectious spirit.’

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.

Staff were aware of people’s individual choices and preferences. One relative told us how staff supported their family member, explaining how they accompanied them on shopping trips and kept them company. They went on to say staff are ‘very friendly, very cheerful and caring’ and made an effort to talk to their family member about the things they were interested in.

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

Generally, people were positive about how they were supported and their ability to make choices about how their care was delivered. We observed staff asking people what they wanted to have support with. Although they gently encouraged people to accept support with personal care, they respected their wishes if they declined. However, one person told us staff sometimes made assumptions about what they could and couldn’t do.

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.

Some people were not always willing to accept care and could become distressed and agitated when care workers arrived at their home. Staff had guidance on how to support people at these times and what they should do to try and minimise their anxiety. An external professional commented, “Carers within the agency do treat clients with kindness and compassion and are very polite, I am aware of some complex behavioural clients on their caseload in which they work extremely hard to meet their needs whilst maintaining compassion and kindness.”

There was an on-call system for staff to use if they needed additional support.

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

Staff told us they were well supported by the organisation. Some staff had personal caring responsibilities and rotas were organised to enable them to meet these. We saw examples of managers thanking staff for their efforts and hard work.

The provider employed staff from overseas. These staff told us they had been well supported when they first arrived in the UK. For example, accommodation was organised for them until they were able to find their own.