We spoke with three people using the service. However, most of them had complex needs which meant they were not able to share all their experiences of using the service with us in a verbal manner. Therefore we used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. All the people we spoke with said they liked the home and were well cared for. They were all able to make their own choices. This included how their room was, how they spent their time each day and what food they ate. One person we spoke with said they had been on a holiday abroad with staff.
The people we spoke with said they never had any concerns with the service they received, saying they were very happy with the staff. They also said there was always a staff member available if they needed anything.
Whilst using the SOFI, we observed staff encouraging people using the service to make their own decisions and in carrying them out. This included the manager using a communication book to support a person with expressing themselves. Using this, the person pointed to show what they wanted to do. During our observation, it was clear staff had been trained to identify each person's needs and how to respond to these. This meant staff could support each person using the service appropriately.