Valley House

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

People’s needs were assessed when they started living at the service and were reassessed when their needs changed or to make sure their support needs were still current. Staff had a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and ensured people were supported in line with this at all times. The management and staff team ensured people were supported to consent and make choices about their support as far as possible.

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.

People were unable to verbally tell us about how their needs were assessed. However, it was clear their needs were assessed when they started living at the service and that staff involved people and their relatives in discussion about their support regularly. This meant people’s needs were reassessed on a regular basis. One relative told us, ‘‘We have regular meetings about [family member] and whether any changes are needed. I am fully involved and able to give my feedback.’’

Staff told us they were supported to get to know people over along period of time when they first started living at the service before they worked with them. They said this gave them a chance to read their care plans and documentation so they understood their needs as best as possible. Staff told us they were fully involved in discussions about people’s care needs and that the management team listened to what they had to say. The management team explained assessment processes were long and complex by necessity and involved a lot of work with people and their relatives. If a person was supported in another place beforehand then staff who worked with them in their previous home and knew them well, supported staff at the service to get to know them and how they liked to be supported.

We did not receive any specific feedback from professionals who worked at the service during this assessment about assessing people’s needs. However we could see that professionals such as psychologists, GP’s and speech and language therapists were involved in discussing people’s support and producing care plans. Advice from professionals was clearly recorded and discussed with staff to ensure they supported people in line with this advice.

Processes were in place to assess people’s needs when they started living at the service. Assessments focused on people’s preferences likes and dislikes as well as their physical support needs. As part of the assessment process, relatives and professionals were consulted to help make sure people’s needs were recorded in as much detail as possible. The management and staff team reviewed people’s needs regularly and updated care plans and risk assessments if any changes were needed.

We did not look at Delivering evidence-based care and treatment during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.

We did not look at How staff, teams and services work together during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.

We did not look at Supporting people to live healthier lives during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.

We did not look at Monitoring and improving outcomes during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.

People were unable to verbally tell us about how they were asked for consent whilst being supported. However, we observed staff asking people whether they were OK with the support they were being given. Processes were in place to support people in line with the MCA as described later in this quality statement. One relative said, ‘‘[Staff] make sure they support [family member] as far as possible to make their own choices and be supported with these. They have all the right paper work in place to say that staff have to help them with some decisions like needing staff to go with them when they go out.’’

Staff were trained in the MCA and had a good understanding of how this applied when they supported people. They explained how they asked people for consent and knew what decisions people needed support with in their best interests. The registered manager and management team understood the importance of the MCA when it came to supporting people who needed some help when making decisions to make sure they stayed safe. They told us this was a regular topic in staff meetings and they discussed this with staff regularly to make sure the principles of the MCA were being adhered to at all times.

Processes were in place to make sure people were supported in line wit the MCA. Where people lacked capacity, assessments and decisions were made in their best interests to ensure staff were supporting them in the least restrictive way possible. The registered manager had compiled a short one page profile for each person detailing the support they needed to make decisions and the legal documentation in place to say that staff were able to do this. This gave staff a very good overview of the support people needed in relation to consent in an easily understandable way.