West Lodge 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

The assessment of these areas indicated areas of concern since the last inspection, our rating for the key question has changed to requires improvement. People were not supported to have choice and control and make decisions about how their support was provided. They were not encouraged and helped by staff to do as much as they could for themselves, to maintain their independence. People were not supported to understand their rights and how the service would make sure these were respected. People were not encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities both at the service and in the community which helped support their independence, health, and well-being. People’s friends and families were free to visit them with no restrictions.

This service scored 60 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We received mixed feedback regarding kindness, compassion and dignity. One person said, “(the carers) try to do everything with individual patients. They are doing their best.” Another person told us, “Not brilliant, not good. Regarding kindness, some treat nice, some not nice, some intermediate.” A relative told us, “Really nice staff and caring.”

The provider and registered manager told us they spot check the service to ensure people are treated with respect, kindness and dignity. However, the provider was unable to show us any records the checks had been completed and what their findings were. We were therefore not assured the provider had an effective system to have oversight on how people were treated.

Partners have received information of concern regarding people not appearing well kept and staff speaking in their first language in front of residents. However, when they visited the service they told us, “I have witnessed staff interacting well with residents, I haven’t observed staff being rude or speaking in their own language. One staff member in particular had a very caring approach with the residents whilst I was there, the manager is passionate and caring and knows her residents well. During my visit there were 2 residents who became agitated, there were staff who were able to support them and de-escalate their behaviours in a calm and supportive manner.” We received mix feedback regarding a culture of kindness and respect between colleagues from other organisations. A relationship had broken down between the care home and a health professional.

Staff were observed to be caring, kind and treated people with dignity. However, when we observed a person who showed signs of distress, staff did not always treat the person with kindness or compassion. We saw staff repeatedly staying “no” and this triggered further distress for the person; rather than being compassionate towards what they wanted and how they felt at the time.

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.

We did not look at Independence, choice and control during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

People told us staff did not always respond when they pressed their buzzer to show they needed immediate help or support. One person told us, “They (staff) take quite a long time to come if I press my button. It takes a long time (when pressing the help button whilst on the toilet) waiting an hour or more sometimes.”

Staff told us they felt they had enough staff and time to respond to people’s immediate needs. They told us the management were always available to help if needed.

We observed people asking for support and having to wait or did not have their needs met. For example, we observed one person shouting for the nurse, who went over to the person. The person asked for some ear plugs. The nurse told the person "I will check that"; however, they returned to their medicine trolley and didn’t do anything.

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.