Lansdowne Hill Care Home

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• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

In this key question we assessed 3 quality statements, in relation to independence choice and control, responding to people’s needs and workforce wellbeing. People were offered choices in a compassionate way and were invited to provide regular feedback about their care. Staff felt supported by the current leaders within the service. Staff had completed training in equality, diversity and inclusion. The culture of the organisation promoted these values by treating people as individuals and adopting a person-centred approach. However, staff were not always available to respond to people’s immediate needs and people and their relatives agreed with this.

This service scored 80 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We did not look at Kindness, compassion and dignity during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Treating people as individuals during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

People told us they could choose between 2 options of meals. People told us they could make their own choices about the time they went to bed and whether they wanted to join in with an activity. One person told us how staff paid attention to personal preferences such as helping them to put on perfume, adding, “I like my smellies.”

Leaders told us about how they promoted independence, choice and control within the service. Leaders explained how surveys were conducted with people regularly and told us how changes were made as a result , such as changes to the service’s menu and activity schedule. One staff member gave us an example of how they encouraged independence within the service, telling us: “if we think [people] are safe to do so, we give people hot water with tea bags and milk and let them make their own drinks, and also little butter and jams to [make toast] themselves so it’s not already done.”

We observed staff consistently offering people choices. For example, one person stated they had not had dinner. We observed a staff member checking this and confirming the person had eaten their lunch and asking if the person was still hungry. The staff member offered the person several options such as a sandwich, pudding or yoghurt.

Processes were in place to gather people’s feedback and to promote choices within the service. For example, the service used a resident of the day process where people were invited to feedback about their care . We saw evidence of changes made within the service following feedback from people, such as changes to activity schedules.

We received mixed responses in relation to staff responding to people’s immediate needs. One relative told us, “They do provide good attention to residents if they need help, but the help is not instant”. Another relative told us, “They have told us themselves that they have staffing problems. Neither Mum nor Dad have been neglected through all this though.”

Some staff told us how their ability to respond to people’s needs in a timely way was impacted by staffing levels. For example, one staff member told us, “There can be times I don’t feel [people are supported] in the right time, mainly due to staffing levels and caring for other residents. If you are repositioning [a person] that means you can’t get to the other resident who is now in need.” However, some staff told us this had recently improved following an increase in staffing levels. Leaders told us they use call bell audits and run a report each morning to ensure people received appropriate care and support, and that any concerns were addressed on an individual basis.

We observed several occasions during our site visit where staff were not always available or did not appear to have the time to assist people. For example, we observed one person asking for support, but no staff were present, and an inspector supported this person to find a staff member. We observed another person implying they would like a staff member to sit with them, but the staff member explained they needed to leave the room. However, when staff were present, we observed them to be responsive to people’s needs.

Leaders told us how they promoted workforce wellbeing. They explained how there were various company schemes such as a joining bonus, free lunches, Christmas, pizza and milkshakes. Leaders told us, “This goes a long way.” They went on to tell us, “We also have an ‘employee of the month’ scheme where team members can vote, the winner then gets a voucher and flowers.” Leaders also explained, “The staff team asked for an area where they could have a break which was away from the home. A summer house has been purchased, erected and furnished so that the team when on duty can have a break away from the home so that they feel they have had a real break without any distractions from what is going on within the home.” Staff felt supported by the current leaders within the service. One staff member told us, “We have been supported by higher up people from [the company] and with [current interim management] at the moment, they are really supportive and understand what we’ve gone through.”

Staff had completed training in equality, diversity and inclusion. The culture of the organisation promoted these values by treating people as individuals and adopting a person-centred approach.