Alston House

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

Caring – this means we looked for evidence that the service involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. At our last inspection we rated this key question good. At this inspection the rating has remained good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their 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.

The service always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. Staff were seen to be kind and caring to people. A person said, “They [staff] are so nice to us.” Another person said, “They’re very kind to us.”

The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. The service supported people to celebrate religious and cultural festivals. A relative told us, “They [staff] are interactive with her. They talk about her past, her travels, they involve her in activities.”

The service promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing. Staff respected people’s individual choices and people’s feedback confirmed this. We observed adaptive equipment was used during mealtimes to enable people to remain independent with eating.

The service listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff respond to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress. During the assessment we observed staff recognised people’s discomfort, or anxiety, and responded quickly and appropriately to this.

The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. Staff spoke highly of the support they received as an employee. Staff did not have a dedicated space to take their breaks, however, this was implemented quickly by the registered manager following feedback from the inspector. Staff were recognised by the service and their peers for their hard work and received recognition awards for this. The service hosted an annual award ceremony to celebrate staff success. A staff member said, “The initiatives in place to recognise my contributions really help foster a sense of respect and belonging.” The focus on staff wellbeing meant that people received safe and person centred care as a result.