Thornton Hall & Lodge

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

Overall, people had choice and control over the day to day decisions relating to their care. Care plans were written in a way that promoted people's independence and staff were able to describe how they preserved people’s privacy and dignity. Records relating to the activities schedule was not kept up to date. The lack of available information limited people's choice about their involvement in the upcoming events that were taking place. Our observations found some people were disengaged and ,although staff interacted with people in a kind and caring way, there were occasions when staff were task focused in their approach. We were assured the registered manager was taking action to improve the social activities available to people through the recruitment of more activities staff.

This service scored 70 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We did not look at Kindness, compassion and dignity during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Treating people as individuals during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

Care plans were written in a way that promoted people's independence. Records relating to the activities schedule were not kept up to date. The lack of available information limited people's choice about what upcoming events were taking place. We found processes to ensure people could exercise choice in relation to their meals was inconsistent. For example, in one area of the home people did not have access to pictorial menus and we found the description of meals was written in a small font size. We shared our findings with the registered manager who committed to auditing and improving the dining experience.

We observed people were offered choice throughout the day in terms of TV, drinks and snacks and whether people wanted to take part in a church service. Their decisions were respected. People had the equipment they needed to be as independent as possible. We observed people's privacy and dignity was maintained. For example, we noted bedroom doors were closed when staff were delivering personal care and we noted staff knocked on people's doors before entering. We observed people's relatives and friends visiting throughout the day. Our observations were mixed in terms of people's engagement levels. For example, in one part of the home we found people had developed meaningful relationships with each other and choose to sit together to talk. However, in another part of the home, people appeared to be more disengaged and although staff interacted with people in a kind and caring was they were largely tasks focused. Our observations also found some improvements were required to enhance people's dining experience such as ensuring people were given information about the food to fully promote choice.

Overall, people had choice and control over their day to day care. However, people provided negative feedback about their opportunities to engage socially. Although people spoke positively about the staff member responsible for planning social activities, people felt they did not have access to meaningful social activities. Comments included, "There’s not much to do" and "Not a lot goes on."

Staff were able to describe how they preserved people’s privacy, dignity and promoted their independence. Staff told us they helped people to retain their skills by encouraging people to wash dishes, tidy up and make a hot drink. However, staff told us it was not always possible to undertake activities on a one to one basis for people due to lack of dedicated activities staff. The registered manager had identified the shortfalls with activities and we were assured they were taking action to address and improve people’s access to meaningful activities through the recruitment of additional activities staff.

We did not look at Responding to people’s immediate needs during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Workforce wellbeing and enablement during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.