Chestnut Gardens 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 were supported by a caring staff team who treated them with great kindness and compassion and respected their rights to privacy and to be treated with dignity. Staff provided care and support to people in line with their individual needs and preferences. People had choice and control over how their care and support was provided and were supported to be as independent as possible. Staff were responsive and knew how to minimise the risk of any discomfort or distress that people might experience. There were no restrictions placed on visitors to the service. People took part in a wide range of activities to support their independence, health and wellbeing. The provider encouraged a culture at the service where staff wellbeing was promoted, to support staff to deliver safe, high quality care to people.

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 consistently treated with great kindness and compassion by the staff team at the service. Without exception, we received high praise for the staff team from people and relatives, which included; “they are absolutely wonderful, always pleasant and amenable.”; “they are jewels, always so helpful, you couldn’t ask for better”; “they are amazing, so lovely, they really care”; and “they are without fault, a really good, kind, thoughtful team.” People told us staff respected their privacy and asked for permission before providing any care and support or before entering their rooms.

Staff understood the importance of being kind and caring and treating people with compassion, dignity and respect. This was evident when they spoke about people they supported and how they helped people to meet their individual needs. The registered manager told us they only employed staff at the service that displayed the required behaviours and standards during the recruitment process. They said, “Interviews are very focussed and look more at the character of potential staff to see if they are suitable. I want kind, compassionate, patient and caring staff here.”

Professionals told us people were treated with kindness and compassion and their privacy and dignity was maintained. One professional told us, “They encourage and make the resident feel confident in their role. Respect and dignity are in harmony with residents.” Professionals told us they were also treated with kindness and respect. One professional told us “The staff are great, they’re so lovely. They all know me by name.”

Staff were kind and caring in their interactions with people. They greeted people warmly and talked to people with respect. When people preferred privacy or time away on their own, staff made sure people could have this. When people became anxious, they were comforted and reassured with kindness and compassion.

The service went above and beyond to enrich people’s experiences based on their individual needs. We saw a number of examples of this where staff had taken information about people’s work histories, interests or wishes, and then used this to plan and deliver new experiences that had positively enhanced people’s lives.

Staff understood how to treat people as individuals and provide care and support in line with people’s needs and preferences. Staff told us information about people’s needs was easily accessible and helped them to deliver individualised care and support to people.

People were relaxed and comfortable when being supported by staff. Staff checked with people how they would like their care and support to be provided. They listened to people and acted on people’s wishes to provide care and support in the way people preferred. Staff made sure people were comfortable and happy with the care and support being provided and tailored this based on people’s responses.

Systems were in place to ensure people’s individual needs were obtained, understood and met. Senior staff undertook assessments, monitoring and reviews of people’s care and support needs, to make sure care plans reflected people’s individual needs and preferences. People’s care plans informed staff how people’s individual needs and preferences should be met when providing people with care and support.

People had choice and control about how they wished to receive care and support from staff. One person told us, “Very much so, I am free as a bird.” Another person said, “Yes, I am in charge!” Another person told us, “We control our lives with a little support.” There were no restrictions placed on visitors to the home. One person said about their family members, “They pop in whenever they can and are always made welcome.” People had choice about how active and involved they wished to be and had access to a wide range of activities to take part in, to support their independence, health and wellbeing. One person told us, “I love the pets that come in, especially, the dog, he is big but so gentle. And the kittens. I go out with my daughter on Sundays so my time is as full as I want it to be and as I like classical music they arranged some for me and even got me a Guinness to drink while I listened.” Another person said, “We particularly like the history talks and in fact they made sure the programme came out with more notice so we could arrange family visits when there isn’t a history talk on, once we had mentioned it.” Another person told us, “Always something if you want and no pressure if you don’t. I like peace and quiet myself although I like to watch the traffic.”

Staff understood that people should be supported to have choice and control and make decisions about the care and support provided to them. The registered manager told us, “The vision for us is that whoever comes here has their life improved. We want them to feel that improvement. We want people to feel empowered…We respect that people have the right to make their own decisions. We encourage people to be independent when they can.” Staff supported people to take part in a wide range of activities to support their independence, health and wellbeing. The activities coordinator was responsive to the needs of people and undertook 1-2-1 conversations to get to know people better and their interests and used this information to plan and deliver activities in line with these.

Staff offered people choice about how they would like their care and support provided. Staff listened to people and acted on their stated choices and preferences, which ensured people maintained control and independence over how their care and support was provided.

Systems were in place to ensure people’s choices and decisions informed how their care and support should be provided. Senior staff undertook assessments, monitoring and reviews of people’s care and support needs, and used information about people’s likes and dislikes, their preferred routines and how they wished to spend their day, to plan people’s care and support. People’s care records instructed staff, when providing care and support, to seek people’s consent, offer choice and support people to do as much as they could and wanted to do for themselves.

People were supported by staff who understood their needs and preferences and understood clearly how to minimise risk of any discomfort or distress people might experience.

Staff understood how people should be supported in line with their needs and preferences. They told us about the strategies they followed on how to do this so that discomfort or distress to people was minimised.

Staff were kind and caring with people and showed genuine interest and concern for their wellbeing. Staff checked on people at regular intervals to make sure they were comfortable and engaged in activities in line with their preferences and supporting their wellbeing. When people expressed discomfort or concern, staff were immediately responsive and acted to minimise this in a considerate and dignified manner. People appeared comforted by the support provided by staff in these moments. Relatives were also treated with kindness and compassion especially when they were experiencing distress and were comforted by staff with kindness and dignity.

Staff enjoyed working at the service and felt well supported and valued in their roles. The registered manager was passionate about supporting staff and understood the importance of their wellbeing and how this impacted on the delivery of care and support to people. They told us, “By knowing staff and their needs we support their wellbeing. I make sure I listen to their requests around leave and I’m very flexible around rotas. I make sure I am available to staff so if they need anything I am there for them. Staff with children or who are studying, have fixed rotas. I cherish my staff and will do anything for them.” The registered manager signposted staff on to initiatives to support their wellbeing, when they felt staff might benefit from additional help. They told us, “We have the [employee benefits platform] that all the staff can access for support to speak to about personal issues or work issues, hardship loans and shopping discounts.”

The provider encouraged a culture at the service where staff wellbeing was promoted, to support staff to deliver safe, high quality care to people. Staff had opportunities through supervision to discuss their roles and the support they needed to help them undertake their roles effectively. Staff also had access to the employee benefits platform and assistance programme which they could access at any time for confidential advice about personal or work issues that may be impacting their work performance and wellbeing.