Prince Michael of Kent Court

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

We assessed all quality statements in the caring key question and found areas of good practice. People, and their families and external professionals felt people were treated extremely respectfully and were well cared for. Staff were kind and caring when supporting people and were always attentive. People’s privacy and dignity were respected and they were treated as individuals. People were encouraged to be independent and were supported to make choices where possible. People were active partners in their care. Staff were fully committed to empowering people, working in partnership and getting people to realise their potential. We observed staff adapting their style and how they interacted with people to suit people’s individual needs, offering support in a way that promoted people’s independence. Staff were never rushed in their interaction. They explained to each person how their care would be delivered and respected people’s decisions. The staff were well supported by the management team and each other, and all staff told us they enjoyed working at the home.

This service scored 100 (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 treated with kindness, compassion. staff were highly motivated to offer care that was kind and promoted people’s dignity. People told us they were very happy with the care they received. One person told us," The staff are very caring and always follow up, they are very kind, I wake up in the middle of the night and staff never complain and are always very nice".

Staff we spoke with were compassionate, one staff member told us, " I look at how best can I support the person. It is not the end of their life when they come here to live their golden age, and they can achieve great things".

One staff member said, "Empathy and compassionate staff matters a lot in this work. People expect compassionate staff, and this shows in all who work here. It has been a wonderful experience working here". We also received positive feedback from external agencies, one professional told us "The care is great, staff are engaged and sensitive to person's wishes and desires and "I would send my Mum here and that’s a good test of care isn't it."

We observed extremely positive engagement between people and staff. Staff carrying out support tasks did so with a calm and gentle manner, talking all the time with people in a natural and congenial way. We saw staff picked up on people’s nonverbal cues and checked how they were feeling. For example, asking, “Are you ok? can I help you with that?” when a person was expressing mild frustration trying to put a drink down on a table. At lunch time, staff assisted people to eat their meal in a well-paced and sensitive way, introducing themselves, explaining what the meal was and offering support in an unobtrusive and inclusive way.

People were valued as individuals and all care we observed was personalised to people’s individual needs.

Staff recognised and respected the totality of people’s needs. We saw staff adapting their approach to suit individual needs, offering support in a way that promoted people’s independence, enabling them to carry out tasks at their own pace. Staff spoke with people, checked on their welfare, asking if they wanted support and how much. We observed one member of staff speaking to a person in their preferred language and the person told us how much they enjoyed being able to speak in their own language.

Care documentation identified areas where people needed support but also identified what they were able to do independently or with a little assistance. People’s preferences were recorded to ensure staff were aware of these.

People’s needs in relation to communication were recorded to provide guidance to staff about how to communicate effectively with the person. For example, keeping questions simple and short, giving time for the person to think and formulate an answer, facing the person to enable them to lip read, or using picture cards to support the person to understand and communicate their wishes.

People were supported to remain independent. Relatives and people, we spoke with told us their family member’s independence was promoted. One person told us, "Staff always knock on my door, help me shower or wash, show me my clothes and say what do you want to wear, it is up to me what time I get up and they put me to bed when it suits me".

We saw evidence on how support had a positive impact on people’s independence, for example where people's mobility was poor staff had supported them, and they were walking again.

Staff also spoke about the importance of keeping people independent, One staff member said, " At times people say no to some aspects of care, after some time we change the staff member and we ask them again, but if they say no, we have to listen and take time and respect it " and " We give people choice and we don't rush and we spend the time."

We saw staff supporting people at lunch time in a way that supported a person to maintain as much independence as possible. For one person, this meant putting the food on the spoon and saying, "There’s another spoonful ready for you if you want it [name of person].” This was done gently and in a manner that felt natural, not drawing attention to the person’s need for support. The staff member continued to make conversation with the person and others on the table about how their morning had been.

In the main lounge area, there was a bar area where people could sit and have a drink, and the registered manager had just purchased an ice cream machine. The ice cream machine was specifically designed to provide fortified ice cream which was enriched with vitamins and minerals for people who needed it. The registered manager explained that it was important that everyone had the same choices. Care records promoted people’s independence by identifying what they were able to do independently and what they required support to do. We observed people being treated as individuals with their choices respected by staff. One person told us they enjoyed been able to walk around the home and sit in their room and watch how the garden plants changed with the seasons. Daily records showed that care staff engaged in ad hoc support to people in relation to their interests such as looking through a book about railways, reading through a magazine or looking at photographs and postcards sent by a person’s family.

The home responded to people’s need and preferences. Staff were visible throughout the service and worked seamlessly together to meet people’s needs. We observed them anticipating people’s needs and checking on their welfare frequently. We noted call bells were answered quickly and when people made requests to staff, such as for a drink or to move to a different area, this was responded to immediately.

Staff we spoke with knew the importance of being aware of and respecting people’s views and choices. One staff member provided an example of when a sensor mat was used as someone had recently fall, they told us, " It is important to respond to [person], need we explained why they needed it, we explain it’s about supporting them as it can have a positive impact as it prevents injury."

The home had an inhouse gym and local shop which had flexible opening times to meet people’s needs. One person was responsible for the shop, and they really enjoyed this role. The inhouse gym was opened with the support of staff and on the advice of local healthcare professionals.

The home had a variety of activities which were developed in response to people’s interest, people had participated in a summer of sport activities to coincide with the Olympics and Wimbledon.

The home had some resident animals such as ducks and a dog and till recently a cat. We could see the positive impact this had on people as they enjoyed interacting with the animals and watching them in their surroundings. The registered manager explained that the ducks arrived as one person enjoyed having ducks and the cat had once belonged to a someone who lived at the home.

The registered manager took steps to support workforce wellbeing. They celebrated staff successes such as length of services, and career progression. The provider had introduced the OSKAR award which invited staff to nominate colleagues who had exceeded expectation and demonstrated the values of being kind, supportive and trusted. The registered manager told us, the home celebrated staff success as this was a core value of the home.

The registered manager also encouraged staff to participate in activities and we saw an example of staff and residents participating in 15 minutes of exercise to encourage everyone to stretch and move more.