Abbeywell Court

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• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

During our assessment of this key question, we found staff understood about equality and diversity and wanted to provide compassionate care. The provider had procedures in place such as one-to-one meetings and team meetings to ensure staff felt valued and could raise any issues affecting their work. The provider had a whistleblowing policy which staff understood. The provider had procedures in place to promote staff wellbeing and worked with staff to ensure they could perform at the best of their abilities. The provider worked with health and social care partners to ensure people achieved positive outcomes and continued to work with partners to drive improvements at the service. The provider was working with the local authority and partner agencies to make service improvements. The provider had been making improvements to their governance and assurance systems.

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 received mixed feedback from staff about the care home’s direction and culture. One staff member told us, “Most staff are happy and motivated, and encouraging.” Another staff member told us, “Staff get on well with each other. We are friendly towards each other and professional.” Another staff member told us, “Staff work together well. Care staff are invested in providing good care.” Another staff member told us, “The management team is good. I work nights and feel included in everything. Some staff have said they have issues but never specify what they are. I feel listened to by the manager." Another member of staff told us, “Some night staff do not do as much as others which has been reported to senior staff.” Another staff member told us, “Night staff are not as involved in team meetings and training like the day staff. There is less focus on night staff.”

Staff received training in equality and diversity. They understood about equality and diversity and wanted to provide compassionate care. During our inspection, staff demonstrated respect for each other and the people they were supporting.

Although we received some negative feedback from staff about how compassionate and supportive the management team were, staff feedback was mostly positive, and they felt included and supported by the management team. One staff member told us, “The manager is very good and friendly. They ask us to let them know about any issues we might have and are supportive. The nurses and clinical lead are also very good.” Another staff member told us, “The manager is very approachable, we knock on the door and nothing is ever an issue. They respond to any issues. The deputy manager is also very approachable.” Another member of staff told us, “The management team do not take our concerns seriously and there have been quite a lot of staff leave recently.” The registered manager told us, “I have high standards and challenge poor practice which has meant we have had to make some staff changes recently. I have a lot of support from senior managers.”

The provider had procedures in place such as one-to-one meetings and team meetings to ensure staff felt valued and could raise any issues affecting their work.

Staff understood whistleblowing procedures. One staff member told us, “We have a whistleblowing policy which is kept in the staff room.” Another member of staff told us, “When I noticed one-to-one staff not supporting a resident to eat, I reported this to the manager who sorted it out and made sure the resident was supported properly.”

The provider had a whistleblowing policy which staff understood. Staff were able to report concerns in one-to-one meetings and the manager had an open-door policy. Concerns reported by staff were recorded, investigated, and actions were taken to ensure people were safe and received good quality care.

Although we received some negative feedback from staff about how equitable treatment of staff was, staff feedback was mostly positive, and they worked in an inclusive and diverse environment. One staff member told us, “Another member of staff told us, “The manager allows me to work around my other commitments and makes amendments to the rota when needed. They are very flexible and open-minded with me.” Another person told us, “The manager is very nice. I had a problem with my home-life, and they were very flexible with shifts to accommodate my needs. Another staff member told us, “Night staff feel included in everything and attend meetings.” Another staff member told us, “There are supposed to be meetings, but the managers don’t check in with everyone. It’s not realistic to attend team meetings if we've just come off a night shift. We hear about what happened from meetings from others.”

The provider had procedures in place to promote staff wellbeing and worked with staff to ensure they could perform at the best of their abilities.

The management team told us they were making improvements to their systems following visits from the local authority quality improvement team. Staff told us they were able to make suggestions to improve the quality of care.

The provider had been making improvements to their governance and assurance systems. Although governance systems were in place to manage and deliver good quality, sustainable care, audits had not identified some care plans were not up-to-date or reflective people’s needs. When we told the management team about this, they updated the care plans straight away. Systems in place to ensure staff training was kept up to date were not always effective. For example, the training matrix used by the provider to monitor staff training needs contained inaccurate information. When we fed this back to the registered manager, they updated the training matrix to ensure it was up-to-date. Audits and checks were carried out to ensure the building and care home environment was safe. For example, fire, gas, electrical and water safety checks were carried out in line with guidance and issues identified were resolved. Audits and checks carried out on equipment used to support people with their care were effective. Audits of safety incidents and complaints were effective, and issues identified were addressed in a timely way.

People told us the provider worked well with partner agencies in relation to their care.

Staff told us they worked well with partner agencies, made referrals, and followed their recommendations when needed to meet people’s needs. One staff member told us, “We make sure we involve partner agencies when needed such as speech and language therapists, district nurses and physios.” The management team told us they worked well with partners in the community and where there were issues with communication, this had been escalated.

We received mixed feedback from partner agencies about how well the provider worked with them. One partner agency told us, “The care home makes appropriate referrals in a timely manner in order to provide safe care. If the service is worried about a resident, they will phone to ask for the referral to be expedited. Care home staff have the knowledge and skills to meet people’s needs.” Another partner agency told us, “The care home has asked us to carry out specific health care training which we would be happy to support them with. Although we have no concerns about people’s care at the care home, communication with the management team has not been easy and we would like to improve relations.”

The provider worked with health and social care partners to ensure people achieved positive outcomes and continued to work with partners to drive improvements at the service.

Staff told us the provider had a positive approach to learning and improving the service. One staff member told us, “The manager is open minded, flexible and we are always involved in decision making about how to improve the care home. For example, we had a covid 19 outbreak last year. The manager asked us what we could do to manage the outbreak. We suggested ideas on managing the outbreak and these were acted on. The outbreak was well-managed.” The registered manager told us, “There has been a massive improvement at the care home. We have really focussed on governance as this was an area requiring improvement.”

The provider was working with the local authority and partner agencies to make service improvements. Systems in place to promote learning from incidents were effective.