Archived: Broom Cottage

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 the last inspection (publication date 2 March 2023) this key question was rated Good. At this inspection the service remains Good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 65 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

Staff 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 received consistently good care and support from staff who had a caring approach. Care plan guidance for staff of how to meet people’s individual care needs reflected the importance of providing care and support based on dignity, respect, kindness and compassion. Records staff had completed relating to people were completed respectfully.

Observations of staff engaging with people was positive. We observed staff communicated effectively and respectfully with people and with each other and visiting professionals. The atmosphere was calm, relaxed and friendly. Staff were attentive to people’s wellbeing needs and were discreet and respectful when supporting people such as with eating and drinking and assisting with personal care.

Relatives were confident their relation received kind and compassionate care. A relative told us, “Every time I visit, I find the staff are kind and caring. I would have spoken up about it if not.”

Feedback from an external healthcare professional was positive about staff’s approach and said, “Staff show care and compassion for the service user when they attend the surgery with them.”

Staff 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.

Recreational, leisure and community opportunities were supported and was a current area of development. Whilst people had individual activity plans of daily activities, these were not consistently used or correctly reflected people’s current interests and hobbies. Care plan guidance in relation to activities was not sufficiently detailed to support new staff and were not outcome focussed. The registered manager told us of their plans to review people’s activity plans and care plans to ensure these better detailed and reflected people’s current interests.

People’s daily care records confirmed people were supported with indoor and community activities and opportunities, however information recorded by staff of activities people had participated in lacked detail. This was important to enable monitoring of people’s engagement and enjoyment. The registered manager told us they had identified this and were working with staff to upskill their record keeping.

People’s individual care and support needs, including routines, preferences, what was important to them and their protected characterises were assessed and planned for. For example, guidance for staff about people’s individual night and morning routines were well documented, and daily care records confirmed people’s routines were being met.

Staff told us they found guidance of how to provide personalised care and support was sufficiently detailed, kept up to date and was supportive. Staff were involved in ensuring care plan guidance reflected people’s individual and ongoing care and support needs.

Relatives were confident staff supported their relation with a variety of activities and opportunities. A relative said, “Staff have taken [relation] on holiday before, and they regularly go on day trips and go shopping.” Relatives also told us how their relation’s bedroom had been personalised. A relative said, “[Relation] has got a lovely room. They have photos of their family, and have a lovely shower room, it's all very nice.”

Staff promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. However, from reviewing care plans, daily records and observations of staff engagement with people, we found the promotion of independence, choice and control needed to be further developed. The manager told us they had identified this was an area that staff required support and upskilling and had plans to do this.

We observed people were supported as fully as possible in choosing what to eat and drink, we saw how a person’s independence was supported by the provision of an adapted drinking cup. We also observed staff supported people with known routines such as 1 person liked to listen to the radio, and the staff assisted the person to do this.

Whilst we observed a staff member encouraged a person with an arts and crafts activity and assistance to spend some time in the garden, we also saw a staff member sitting for periods with people with no or very limited interaction, engagement with activities. We observed people were supported to go out in the afternoon with staff, we noted a staff member say to people they were going out for a drive. When staff were questioned about the activity, they added the trip out would involve a trip to the garden centre coffee shop and to the bank to collect money for a person to get a haircut. However, none of this information was shared with people, neither were people consulted in this activity choice. This showed a lack of consideration of how to increase people's choice and control.

Relatives told us independence was an area that could be improved upon. A relative said, “It depends what staff are on for promoting independence. [Relation] can do a lot of things, some staff have been and gone, but they would get them to help with things, they could help making gravy, I don’t know if that still goes on.”

Staff 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 how staff were attentive and supportive to people’s changing needs. For example, a person indicated they wanted a drink, and a staff member responded immediately and supported the person to the kitchen to choose their drink. Another person indicated they wanted to dance with a staff member whilst listening to some music on the radio, the staff member present responded with a smile, and they had a dance together which the person was observed to enjoy by their smiles and happy demeanour.

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

Overall, staff were positive about working for the provider. The staff team, including management team were relatively new and still developing and forming relationships. The manager showed an awareness and understanding of the importance of supporting the staff team to grow and develop.

Staff raised no concerns about their safety but did raise concerns that the manager and deputy were not always on site. The management team were aware of this and confirmed of the frequency managers were on site. Staff received ongoing refresher training, and regular opportunities to discuss their work, training and development needs. They had access to policies and procedures to support them such as how to speak up if they had any concerns.

Staff had access to an employee assistance and occupational health service, various support groups and access to staff benefits. The provider also had a staff recognition awards scheme.