The Office

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

Staff treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity.

People told us staff were kind and they were treated with respect and dignity. Records showed people were able to make choices about where they spent their time and staff confirmed this. A relative told us staff knew people well and were caring in their approach. They confirmed they were able to visit when they wished and always felt welcome.

Staff told us people sometimes chose to spend time alone in their rooms and they respected this. One commented, “I ask if [Name] wants anything but they just want to be on their own.”

The provider treated people as individuals and took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. They did not always make sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences.

People’s person-centred care plans had been developed with their involvement and contained information about the things that were important to them. If people had goals they wanted to work towards, these were recorded and staff supported them to achieve their goals. One person told us they wanted to start going swimming again and staff were supporting them with this. A member of staff told us; “We are researching it together. [Name] can be a bit cautious but [Name] feels ready to do this now.” However, there were no care plans, other than those provided by commissioners, to outline people’s needs in relation to their health or any medical needs.

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

There was an ethos of supporting people to be independent and have autonomy over their day to day lives. A member of staff described how people were asked every week what they wanted to do that week. People had control over day to day decisions such as what to wear and eat and how they spent their time.

The provider listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff did not always respond to people’s needs in the moment or act to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

People told us they were able to approach staff for support if they needed to. One person explained how they could contact staff when they were not in the service, using the on-call system.

Staff described how they supported people to voice any concerns or worries they had. One member of staff told us how they had slowly built a trusting relationship with a person using the service and they were now much more likely to share concerns with them.

We were not assured staff were consistently available to respond to people quickly in times of crisis. There were not always enough staff to provide the required number of commissioned support hours.

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

Staff told us they were well supported at work. One commented, “If I need anything I only have to pick up the phone.” Staff told us they were encouraged to develop professionally.

There was a lone working policy. However, no lone working risk assessments had been completed.