Kilburn Care Centre

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 changed to Requires improvement. This meant people did not always feel well-supported, cared for or treated with dignity and respect.

This service scored 60 (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 treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with respect.People told us the provider’s staff were compassionate, kind and treated them with dignity and respect. We observed that to be the case during our site visits.

People told us the provider’s staff listened to them and communicated with them appropriately, in a way they could understand.Staff told us they always treated people with kindness but that sometimes their workload limited the time they could spend with people. A staff member told us, “Absolutely, our permanent staff are kind to the service users, our only downfall is that we often do not have more time to spend with them, and we sometimes mainly interact only when giving personal care, for example, helping with continence or nutrition.”

The provider did not always treat people as individuals or make sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They did not always take account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, and unique backgrounds.

People’s individual needs and preferences were understood and detailed in their individual care plans. Staff told us they understood the importance of treating people as individuals. Care plans included any relevant personal, communication, cultural, social or religious needs, which might be important for care staff to understand when providing care and support. People’s care plans were available to staff to refer to for guidance on how to support individuals.

However, people did not always receive the support in the way they preferred. For example, a person told us, “I ask for a shower but the staff are pushed for time so I cannot have them as regularly as I would like. If I had a shower, it would leave them short staffed.” Another person told us, “I sometimes have a shower, but this morning there was no time for them to give me one.”

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 supported to understand their rights and make choices about how their care was to be provided. There was a range of equipment, where needed, to support and maximise people’s independence. People were provided with tailored support to ensure they remained as independent as possible. People were supported to maintain relationships that were important to them. The provider was supportive of that and encouraged people’s relatives and friends to visit the care home and maintain those links.

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

People told us the staff did not always attend quickly when called but told us they understood the staff were often busy supporting other people. For example, a person told us, “Sometimes it depends on the time of day. I like to go to bed in the afternoon to rest but the staff are not always available. I sometimes have to wait 45 minutes for the staff to come.” Another person told us, “Sometimes when they are just outside the door they come quickly, at other times you have to wait. It varies.”

A relative told us it sometimes takes staff a long time to support a person to get up in the morning which means they don’t have their breakfast until just before lunch time. During the site visits, we did not observe call bells going unanswered or any people having to wait a long time for staff attention when called. However, we did observe that 2 people did not receive their breakfast until 11:45am.

The provider did not always care about and promote the wellbeing of their staff. They did not always support staff and enable them to deliver person-centred care.

People were cared for by staff who did not always feel valued and supported by the provider. For example, a staff member told us, “There seems to be staff leaving and others looking for jobs. I've worked there for a few years and never known it like this. There have been so many managers coming and going.”

Staff did not usually have regular breaks when working shifts. For example, a staff member told us, “There's a lot of times that we don't have a break, or we just have a quick one in the lounge while watching the residents and making sure they are safe.” Another staff member told us, “On most shifts, staff have not been able to take a break until well into the afternoon if we’re lucky, from a 7am start. We have a staff room in the basement that is dark, dingy, and not welcoming.”

Staff did not always feel listened to by the provider. The provider had recently increased the numbers of staff on shift, but a staff member told us, “It has taken a long time to be listened to, about needing more staff. The staff numbers now are not what we have been running with over the last few months. This increase is only a recent change. It has taken its toll on staff, and I also believe staff are feeling overworked and undervalued.”

People told us they had noticed a change in the morale of the provider’s staff. A person told us, “They are not as happy as they used to be, and we have lost some familiar faces.”