Cornerstones Extra Care Scheme

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 told us staff were caring. Staff promoted people’s independence and supported them to do as much for themselves as possible. People received personalised care, tailored to their individual needs and preferences. Staff supported people to access their chosen activities in their local community. Staff responded to people’s immediate needs and provided them with reassurance when they experienced distress.

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.

People made positive comments about staff’s caring and compassionate approach. Comments included, “The carers are fantastic. They are. I’d go a long way to get them. They keep me happy and smiling” and “[Staff] are a lovely lot. They do everything I ask and come to help quickly. They are very sociable”.

Staff gave examples of how they delivered compassionate care and support. One staff member said, “Respect them, listen to them, communicate with them”. Another staff member told us, “Always talk to them, ask them questions…you say, ‘how are you this morning?’ A lot can be the listening part”. A third staff member told us, “We spend time with them, laugh with them, sharing information…ask if they want to share what is upsetting them”.

Professionals who worked with the service made positive comments about how staff interacted with people in a positive manner.

People told us staff tailored care and support to their individual needs and preferences. One person said, “[Staff] tailor the service to me and it’s personal. Yesterday, I came back from the doctor. The carer came in and asked me how I was. She asked me to relax a bit and I thought that was really nice”. Another person told us, “We are all treated as individuals. They tell me where in town I can get the books that I want to read”.

Staff gave us examples of how they respected and supported people’s individual needs such as their cultural and religious preferences. They told us they spent time getting to know people to provide individualised care and support. The nominated individual told us staff completed a comprehensive induction training programme which included the provider’s values and the expectation on staff to demonstrate these. These included treating people as individuals, respecting their choices and preferences, ensuring they are treated fairly and ensuring that that their dignity is maintained.

The nominated individual told us staff behaviours were monitored using a series of checks including observations, supervisions, appraisals and feedback from people. Care plans contained specific information about people’s needs, choices and preferences to support staff to deliver personalised care and support.

People told us they were supported by staff to be independent. One person said, “We are all treated as individuals. They tell me where in town I can get the books that I want to read”. Another person told us, “[Staff] try to let us do things for ourselves, if we can. Recently, last year, I wanted to learn the guitar and the carers told me where I could do a course to learn to play”.

Staff gave us examples of how they helped people maintain functional skills to retain their independence as much as possible. One staff member said, “We try our best to help them do things for themselves…we encourage them [to] wash, dress, hoover”. The nominated individual told us how staff used ‘welbeing hours’ to spend time with people one to one, developing and maintaining life skills including online bill payments. They gave an example of adjustments made to the person’s care to detail the support they needed to continue to pay bills online independently.

Care plans contained information for staff to support them to deliver personalised care which supported their independence. This included details about people’s abilities and tasks they were able to complete independently, such as cleaning their teeth or washing their face.

People gave positive feedback about how staff responded to their immediate needs. Where people’s needs changed staff adjusted care and support as needed to ensure people received tailored support which met their current needs.

Staff told us they spent time getting to know people to understand their preferences, needs and any anxieties. They used this information to monitor changes in people’s needs in order to provide responsive, person centred care and support.

Staff gave us mixed feedback about whether they felt the provider supported their wellbeing. One staff member said, “changes to staffing and addition of other schemes has resulted in serious stressful levels…requests to head office for assistance was ignored…until after a year”. Another staff member told us, “I have voiced concerns, supervision and worry about getting paid properly...anyone voices something it just seems to get shared around but no action taken… unpaid break 30 mins then reduced to 20 minutes…recently…no breaks given at all.” A third staff member said, “Every day [managers are] changing the list of care calls and staff don’t find out until they get in…if somebody is left out, or their medicines are not given, we have to ring the GP…communication is a big issue…no allocated breaks...or just when they are about to go home”.

There was a lack of evidence to demonstrate the provider had taken sufficient steps to promote staff wellbeing. Wellbeing was discussed during staff supervisions, however there was no evidence of staff surveys or discussions during team meetings to help promote staff wellbeing. The provider had processes in place to support staff wellbeing such as ‘wellness action plans’ but there was no evidence of these being used in practice. Risk assessments were in place however, for those with protected characteristics, such as pregnancy.