Chestnut House

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 service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. At our last inspection we rated this key question requires improvement. At this inspection the rating has changed to good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 70 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. People, and their relatives, were complimentary about the care staff. One person said, “The staff are caring and very good” and a relative told us, “The staff are lovely, friendly and very nice and they are very good with [Name].” However, on the first day of our inspection, we observed staff were not always interacting with people when providing support. We discussed this with the manager and saw on the second day of the assessment, staff were chatting, encouraging and checking people were okay when providing support. Feedback from people, relatives and visiting medical professionals showed staff usually interacted well with the people they were supporting.

The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. For example, people could choose when they got up and where they wanted to spend their day. People’s cultural needs were recognised and responded to. For example, arrangements had been made for people to be visited by a priest if they wished.

The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. However, activities were not always available. Staff arranged activities when they could, including one to one time with people as some people said they did not like joining in group activities. The home was in the process of recruiting an activity coordinator. People were encouraged and supported to complete tasks themselves to maintain their independence where possible.

The service listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff respond to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress. Staff were always present in the communal areas to respond to people’s needs quickly. Staff regularly checked with people about any immediate needs. Staff had the tools and equipment to support people’s care. People could communicate easily with staff and received care that met their individual needs.

The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. Staff said they liked working at the service and felt their wellbeing was supported.