Kingsland House

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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

We saw people being cared for by staff who were task focused and did not always support people with compassion or dignity. People we could speak to told us staff were kind. There had been staff changes at the home and the manager told us they were working on improving the culture. Staff told us they were happy and proud to work at the home. Staff told us how they supported people and people said “Staff are really lovely and helpful.”

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We spent time with people at lunchtime on Memory Lane. Staff did not treat people with dignity. We did not see staff speak to people while serving them. Staff were efficient but task focused and people were not always helped when they needed support, for example a person needed help to load their spoon as they repeatedly spilled food or overloaded the spoon but staff did not speak to them or offer support. We saw a person spill large amounts of food, but staff did not help the person or clean up the spills. When staff helped people to eat they did not speak to them or otherwise interact with them as they ate. Staff took away plates without asking if people had finished. The inspector spoke to the manager during the visit to inform her about this poor practice.

The manager told us there had been issues in the past and the home was undergoing a cultural change. We spoke to staff in varying roles, and staff who had worked for many years at Kingsland House and staff who had only worker there for only a few months. Staff told us the culture was changing. They said staff were very caring. Staff from overseas told us they felt welcomed and enjoyed working in the home. A member of staff told us how they try to spend time sitting with people if they can, and how they comfort people who may be distressed due to their dementia. Staff explained there were ‘information clouds’ on people’s walls with information about topics people liked to talk about, or their past hobbies, this enabled staff to talk to people about things that were meaningful to them. A member of staff said “Giving care makes me happy, just helping people shower, and to look and feel good. I am proud to work for Barchester.”

The service raised concerns as appropriate with local authority safeguarding teams and worked with them to address concerns. We had not received any information of concern from the local authority or other healthcare professionals who worked with the service.

We had received concerns from relatives that people were not treated with dignity or kindness at Kingsland House. However people we spoke to at Kingsland House told us staff treated them with respect and compassion. A visitor we spoke to said they were happy with the support staff provided. Another person told us “Staff are really lovely and helpful.” One person told us they had lived at the home for a while and seen changes in the staff, but staff had always been nice.

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.

We did not look at Independence, choice and control during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

Staff were busy but not rushed. We saw staff respond to people, including managing their food and drinks between main meals. Staff were not always responsive, for example at mealtimes. Due to the layout of the home it was possible for staff to be in the wrong area of the home for prompt care.

People we spoke to gave mixed responses when asked how quickly staff responded to their needs. Some people told us they rarely waited for care once they rang their bells, while others said they waited a long time and didn’t think there were enough staff to respond any faster. One person said they thought there should be a second activities coordinator.

The manager told us staff were able to respond to people’s needs and took into account the wishes people had for the way they spent their time at the home. The manager told us they had introduced more frequent resident and relative meetings, and responded to anything raised at the meetings. The manager and the deputy arranged for private meetings with families who had complaints to resolve them.

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.