Glenvale Park 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 and relatives spoke positively about a caring and supportive staff team. People were treated with kindness; staff respected their dignity and promoted their independence. People consistently told us they were supported and treated well. Management and staff recognised the importance of people maintaining control over their lives to support their physical and emotional wellbeing. Staff demonstrated empathy and understanding of people and took time to listen to them and respond in a meaningful way. Newsletters about calendar events were publicised well. Management and staff knew people well and provided person-centred care that met people’s individual care needs, preferences and social interests. People’s quality of life, health and wellbeing was enhanced and they were protected from the risk of loneliness and isolation. People told us they enjoyed a variety of daily activities, social events and feeling part of the wider community. People’s relatives and friends were able to visit without any restrictions.

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.

People and relatives told us staff treated everyone with kindness, compassion and dignity in their day-to-day care and support. People felt staff listened to them and communicated with them respectfully and in a way they can understand. People told us staff treated them with kindness in how they engaged with them. Comments received included, “Staff are always very friendly and take good care looking after my relative”, “Staff seem very caring and committed” and “All staff are kind, considerate and caring.”

Staff interacted with people and their relatives in a warm and friendly manner. Staff demonstrated how to treat people with dignity and respect. Staff told us how supporting people with care and compassion was essential to their role and forming positive relationships.

The staff were caring and responsive. External professionals spoke positively about the kindness of the staff. One health professional told us, “They are very responsive.” Other health professionals told us staff responded quickly to people's changing needs.

We observed staff support people with kindness. Consent was asked of people before staff provided support, and staff were respectful and considered people's dignity when supporting them. We observed staff knocking on people’s bedroom doors and waited for their consent before entering. Staff referred to people by their preferred names.

People and relatives told us staff treated everyone as individuals and made sure their care and support needs were met. People’s personal, cultural, social and religious needs were understood and met. A person said, “Very caring staff and treat residents with respect.” A relative said, “They are well informed, they know what [Name] likes and what [Name] doesn’t, they are amazing with this. They are giving [Name] some independence, without restricting [them] too much.”

Staff understood people’s personalised care and support needs. One member of staff told us, “We support [person] with personal care at a time that suits them to fit around their prayer timings". Staff told us they listened to people and their relatives about the care and support they wanted and kept up to date with any changes to people's care needs.

We observed staff attending to people's immediate needs. Staff were responsive in supporting people who were distressed and this was done calmly and with patience. We observed a relaxed atmosphere with staff being alert and attentive, spending time with people and engaging them in conversations.

People’s individual needs and preferences were reflected in their care plans. Care plans detailed people’s likes and dislikes. Staff supported people to follow their chosen preferences. For example, staff regularly supported a person who wished to manage their own medication. Another person had personal care at times of day to suit their religious beliefs.

People experienced and benefitted from a variety of activities and experiences; the home was an integral part of the community. People and their relatives told us about what a fantastic vibrant home Glenvale Park Care Home was and how it enriched their lives. There was a variety of activities on offer in the home; for example, gardening club, arts and crafts, walking club, various exercise groups, breakfast club and church services. People benefitted from the companionship from members of the community. For example, the local community was invited to the ‘knit and natter’ club, local residents were invited to the 'over 55's movie afternoon', local children were invited to the 'Glenvale toddlers' session. One person told us, “I did not want to go into a care home and I put it off for as long as I could, had I known, how much better my life was going to be I would have booked myself a space ten years ago.” A relative said, “[Name] has severe dementia but they ensure that [Name] is as engaged with the people they shares the home with and is included in the entertainment and day to day activities as much as [Name] wants.” There was no restrictions for people to receive their visitors.

People's wellbeing was a priority. Staff told us about the changes in people's confidence and happiness because of the involvement in clubs, activities and community integration. The lifestyle manager was committed to providing people living at the home with a wide variety of activities and experiences; their enthusiasm for the role and level of engagement with the community and health professionals enabled this to happen. Staff told us how they supported people with maintaining their independence and knew people well to help promote choices and decisions and encourage people to try new things.

We observed people, staff and members of the local community enjoying the planned toddlers event. This was supported by a local church and advertised in the local community and was well attended. Throughout the site visit days, we saw people being visited by friends and family throughout the day and we observed the interactions between staff and relatives to be good; staff clearly knew people's relatives and visitors well and this enhanced the experience for people. We observed visitors with children enjoying cake in communal areas and other visitors using the garden room. People were encouraged to use their mobility equipment and we saw independence promoted with people being encouraged to help themselves to snacks and drinks. We observed people accessing the 'Spring activity pack' which was a booklet of activities including word searches, mindfulness colouring, sudoku puzzles and a quiz all about butterflies.

The provider was passionate about people's wellbeing and had the processes and staff in place to support this. Good relationships with external professionals enabled a professionals breakfast meeting to take place on a monthly basis, the objective was to raise awareness about dementia services by networking the North Northamptonshire services. We saw this was very well attended, there was representatives from health organisations, financial services, dementia choir and religious groups. The provider enabled Christmas hampers to be donated to the local community, donations from events gifted to local charities and involvement in various calendar events throughout the year. Risk assessments and safeguards were in place to support the activities. We saw care plans had been updated on a regular basis to reflect any changes to people's care needs.

People were treated with dignity and respect. People's care needs were responded to quickly. One person told us they only used the call bell once and staff were available straight away. Staff prompted people whose first language was not English to use their communication tools if they had difficulty expressing their immediate needs.

Staff told us how they knew people well and how they responded to people's immediate needs. One staff member told us, “We all prioritise call bells. We work together really well as a team to make sure we cover for each other if another staff is answering a call bell.” Staff were confident at reporting any concerns to health professionals.

We observed staff attending to people's immediate needs. Staff were responsive in supporting people who were distressed, and this was done calmly and with patience. We observed a relaxed atmosphere with staff being alert and attentive, spending time with people and engaging them in conversations.

People were supported by staff who had opportunities to give feedback to the provider or raise any concerns and they felt their views were listened to. Staff felt valued by the management team and we observed staff accessing senior management comfortably.

The provider had policies in place to support staff well-being including salary advances, access to on-line GP's, unlimited mental health support and bereavement support. The provider recognised the diversity of the staff team and had a variety of resources in place to support them.