Bankfield House 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

People told us they mostly felt treated with kindness and compassion. However, we observed some shortfalls the level of care given to people at Bankfield House mainly due to the availability of staff to provide timely responses to requests for assistance.

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.

We received mostly positive feedback from people about how kind, caring and compassionate staff were at Bankfield House. One person told us, “They [staff] definitely treat me with respect…They are very kind to me.” Another person told us, “Most of them [staff] treat me okay and it’s a pleasure to have a laugh with them.”

The home manager told us they ensure staff are kind and caring through training and through tutoring staff on how to provide care with respect. Staff told us they thought people received good care at the home. One staff member told us, “The staff who we have got here, are all good and I think the residents are looked after.”

One visiting professional told us they had seen improvements at the home recently with the arrival of the new manager. They told us they did not currently have any concerns about the people living at Bankfield House. However, they noted there had been several concerns about people’s care prior to this.

We observed some kind and caring interactions between staff and people. For example, staff were chatting to one lady about her earrings and we could see some staff members knew people well. Most people appeared appropriately presented; however, not everyone had clean clothes and brushed hair. We were not assured that people were receiving good and consistent oral and personal care. We observed that some people had poor oral care and we found one person’s nails were unclean and we requested staff attended to this concern. One person’s bedroom had a strong malodour and this was resolved after we reported this back to the management team. We reported an incident to the management team after we heard a staff member speaking loudly and inappropriately to a person in their room. The home manager later told us they had spoken with staff about this incident.

We received positive feedback from people about their care at Bankfield House. One person told us, “They [staff] help me get dressed in a morning and help me to choose what to wear, they are very good.” However, we observed people were not always treated as individuals and did not always have their needs met.

The home manager had recognised that not everyone was having their religious needs met and told us they were in the process of addressing this need. Staff mostly spoke kindly about people and told us they would give people choice. For example, one staff member told us they would always ask what a person wanted to wear and commented, “I will show [name] clothes options until there is something she likes, she still knows what she likes.” However, on 2 occasions we heard staff talking about people in an undignified manner.

We observed mixed interactions between staff and people. We observed some staff interacted on a personal level to support people, however, on other occasions staff provided support with little communication. We observed one person in the dining room kept repeating that they were cold; however, the only response they received was a staff member to tell them they were cold too. No action was taken by staff to reassure the person and bring them further clothing or a blanket.

The provider had an equality policy and most staff had received training in equality and diversity. We did not see systems and processes promoted individualised care, for example, information in care documentation was very scarce relating to people’s individual preferences for care.

We received positive feedback from people about what they like to do during the day. One person told us, “I like to please myself whether I go to the lounge or dining room. No one forces me to do anything.” Another person told us, “I like to watch TV in my room or read and listen to music.” However, we found people did not always get choice and control over their life in Bankfield House. We found people with higher level needs were washed and dressed and put back in bed by the night shift before the day shift started work at 8am. This was a regime imposed by the home manager and people had not been consulted as to whether this was their choice or not.

The home manager told us that when they started their employment at the home that a bath and shower list was not in place, they told us a bed bath is not enough for people. Therefore, they implemented a bath and shower programme and a list is now up on the wall in the senior’s room. Bath and shower lists are not reflective of individualised care and people should be offered a bath or shower every day. One person told us they were supported to have a shower every day; however, they told us sometimes they had to wait for assistance “because they [staff] take their time to answer the bell.” We did not observe people being showered or bathed during our site visits. The home manager told us about the regime they had introduced to have people washed and dressed before day staff came on shift. They explained their reasoning as it was taking day staff too long to get people up and people needed to be kept clean in bed and have their breakfast on time. We still found some people were not up until mid-morning for their breakfast as staff were busy assisting other people. On day 2, we found 2 people in their room had not been assisted to rise, had not had a drink or breakfast at 10.30am.

We observed mixed instances of people being given choice about their care and support. We saw some staff giving choice; however, we also observed many instances where people were not given choice. We spoke with one person and asked them how they felt about being washed and changed and put back in bed very early in the morning and they replied that they were not happy about it but did not get any choice in the matter. We spoke with another person in the dining room who told us they were “shattered” and wanted to go back to bed but they wouldn’t be allowed to do that. We observed people being told by staff where to sit and to “sit down”.

We found people’s individual preferences for care, their interests and what was important to them was not always recorded in care documentation. Nothing was recorded relating to their current strengths and aspirations. This meant staff would not always know how a person would like to have their care and support delivered.

People told us staff responsiveness when they used their call bells was poor. There was not enough staff on duty at night in relation to the needs of the people as many people required 2 staff to assist them.

We spoke with the home manager about how staff are able to identify when a person was becoming unwell. They told us staff had received training and know what to look for and any concerns are discussed in handover. However, we found the staff or management team had not identified the person we reported to be unwell who required GP input.

We noted people did not always have access to drinks or call bells. Over the 3 days of site visits, we observed that it was difficult for staff to always respond to people’s immediate needs in a timely way.

Staff gave positive feedback about the provider and the management team. They told us they felt supported and wellbeing was promoted, one staff member told us the management team were “really keen about our breaks and having water”. Another staff member told us the home manager was supportive, dedicated to the job and “things have got better” at the home.

Staff had received supervision sessions and meetings with the management team. The home manager told us they encouraged positive improvements and recognised achievements of individual staff through “thank you treats”.