The Larches - Tiverton

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

We assessed 1 quality statement in the ‘Caring’ key question and found areas of concern. The score for these areas has been combined with scores based on the rating from the last inspection, which was Good. Although the assessment of these areas indicated areas of concern since the last inspection, our rating for the key question remains Good. People at the service said they were well supported however, improvements were needed in relation to personalisation of care provision and people’s involvement and development of their support plans. People were not aware they had care and support plans. Some of our observations of staff delivering care were not consistently positive.

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.

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 and their relatives told us they were able to spend time together in the service and relatives said they were welcomed. We found people were supported to maintain relationships that were important to them. However, we found improvements were needed in relation to the involvement and development of people’s care and support plans. Whilst no specific concerns were raised with the assessment, none of the people or family members we spoke with were aware they had care plans and they told us they had not been involved in care plan reviews.

Staff spoke about people as individuals and knew them well. For example, their preferences regarding the gender of staff to deliver personal care. Information they shared with us was reflected in people’s care plans. However, we found staff did not always have a good understanding of how to promote people to have choice or promote wellbeing. Some staff we spoke with were aware of how to offer choices, for example at mealtimes. Other staff we spoke to had little understanding of the importance of activities and did not create an environment in communal areas that was engaging. Staff confirmed there were very limited activities on offer for people.

We saw several staff were loud and could be abrupt in the way they spoke with some people living at the home. Following our feedback after day 1, the manager held a staff meeting regarding how staff communicated with people. We saw this resulted in a positive change. We did not observe any meaningful activities for people. We observed people in the communal lounge with limited staff interaction and staff not acting in a way that was conducive to an engaging atmosphere. We observed some staff sitting with people or offering some limited conversation, but there were no structured activities nor an activity schedule.

People were not always supported to have personalised care and support designed around their specific needs and preferences. For example, people’s records contained information about their social interests and preferred activities, but the provider had reduced the amount of activities provided within the home. One person’s care documentation stated 'I like it when the exercise gentleman visits on a Friday' but this activity had been changed to fortnightly. There was an activity schedule, but this contained outdated information and signs for Easter activities were still on the board, despite this holiday having passed. People were not supported to access their local community. Activity within the home was not structured, and there was no choice of activity for people.

We did not look at Responding to people’s immediate needs during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Workforce wellbeing and enablement during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.