Balmoral 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 received support from care workers with kindness, empathy and compassion and staff respected people’s privacy and dignity. People were treated as individuals and their care, support and treatment met their needs and preferences. The provider promoted people’s independence, to know their rights and to have choice and control over their care, treatment and wellbeing. The provider listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, and they supported and enabled them to always deliver person centred care.

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 and their relatives spoke positively about the care and support they received. A person living at the care home told us, “It’s lovely here. I chose to come here. Staff are lovely and it is a friendly environment.”

Staff we spoke with demonstrated a caring, compassionate attitude towards the people they supported and the care they provided them. Staff spoke about people in a kind and respectful way. They were aware of the need to provide people with dignified care. One staff said, “Knock at door and greet first with a happy face. Ask if I can do for example a shower.”

Professionals who visit the service did not raise any concerns in this area.

During our site visit we saw staff treat people with dignity and respect. Staff were seen to knock on doors, offer people choices and seek consent before supporting.

People told us staff treated them as individuals and were familiar with their needs, preferences and daily routines. One person said, “I only have to ask, and they (the staff) will get it for me. I am really well looked after. I like to go to bed about 8.45 after I have had my medication. Sometimes I wake up in the night and I get up and sit with the staff, sometimes there are other people up too, so we all have a cuppa.”

Staff understood people’s needs and wishes and treated them as individuals. One staff member told us, “We go to the shop to buy toiletries and clothes for people that don’t have families to get it for them. We spend time with people to see what they like so we can get the right products. We get enough time to chat to people and find out what they like.”

We observed staff provide people with the care and support they needed according to their individually assessed needs and wishes.

The provider had policies that put people at the centre of their care and treated them as individuals. Staff received training in person centred care. People’s care plans were up to date, personalised and contained detailed information about their likes and dislikes, and how they preferred staff to meet their care needs and wishes.

People were encouraged and supported to do as much as they could for themselves and to maintain and develop their independence. People’s care plans reflected this enabling approach and set out clearly people’s dependency levels and what they were willing and capable of doing for themselves safely, and what they needed support with. People had access to activities and the local community to promote and support their independence, health and wellbeing. People and relatives were very positive overall about the activities on offer. One person said, “I like all the activities especially quizzes and making things. I’m looking forward to seeing the farm animals and the trip to Cleethorpes.” A relative commented, “The activities organiser is brilliant. She creates a good stimulating environment.” However, we received some comments that there were less activities since the second activity person had left. One relative said, “There used to be two activity coordinators and they struggled to cover the whole place but there is only one now, so she isn’t in here that often.”

Managers and staff understood people they supported should be able to make informed choices about how they lived their lives and decide what care staff provided them. A member of staff described how they have recently supported a long-term resident to be reassessed following their request to return home. This included a new Dols (Deprivation of Liberty) assessment being completed, engagement with family and proactively exploring all possible avenues to try and facilitate their wishes. Staff supported people to take part in a wide range of activities to support their independence, health and wellbeing and to maintain networks and relationships that were important to them. One staff said, “One [person] uses work phone to ring [relative] as [person] doesn’t have their own phone, so we arrange times to ring.” The registered manager told us a second activity coordinator was in the process of being recruited.

People were supported by staff who knew them well and understood their needs. Staff were kind and considerate in their interactions with people. There was a range of appropriate equipment to support and maximise people’s independence and outcomes from care and treatment. Staff engaged people in activities throughout the day. An activities coordinator was employed, and a timetable of activities was seen to be in place including in the community and wider afield. This included a planned visit from a local farm on the day of our site visit. We saw that examples of people being supported to maintain their independence and community networks. For example, one person was supported to continue to access the community and maintain routines previously in place before moving to Balmoral and a volunteer was utilised to play chess weekly with one person.

People and their relatives were actively involved in developing their care plans. This included identifying their needs on the grounds of equality characteristics and looking at how those needs would be met. It also included finding out about their choices and preferences. The plans were regularly reviewed. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were supported to maintain relationships and networks that were important to them. The service provided meaningful activities, linked to people's hobbies and interests.

People told us they were confident staff would respond to a change in their health needs and that when they required support, staff responded quickly. One person said, “They come straight away if I ring my buzzer.”

Staff took time to get to know people which helped them build positive relationships. Staff knew people well enough to recognise when there was a change in their physical or mental health. They were aware of the need to contact various professionals so additional support could be sought. The registered manager gave an example where the pre-admittance assessment for one person identified equipment that nursing staff had not previously used. Training was sought from district nurses and delivered prior to admittance so that safe and effective support could be provided for this person.

People were supported to stay healthy and well. Care plans detailed people’s health care needs and conditions and the action staff needed to take to keep them fit and well. Records showed staff ensured people routinely attended scheduled health care appointments and had regular check-ups with a range of health professionals.

Staff told us they had plenty of opportunities to give feedback and were confident their views and opinions were valued. Regular meetings and supervision took place, which enabled positive conversations. One staff said, “We do it 3 monthly (supervision). I’ve just had one recently. Can raise issues and any problems.” The senior team were aware of workforce diversity and gave examples of where adjustments had been made to support staff with their personal circumstances, health conditions or cultural needs.

The registered manager routinely used supervision and group team meetings to engage and support staff through any areas of concern or identify any training needs. We saw policies and procedures in place to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion was upheld. The provider told us they were fully committed to these principles and values and were a responsive service and were able to meet diverse needs.