Cumberland

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 were supported to have choice and control and make decisions about how their support was provided. They were encouraged and helped by staff to do as much as they could for themselves, to maintain their independence. People were supported to understand their rights and how the service would make sure these were respected. People’s friends and families were free to visit them with no restrictions. People were 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 wellbeing.

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.

People looked at ease and comfortable in the presence of staff. Staff interaction with people was characterised by warmth and kindness. We observed staff frequently sit and chat with people relaxing in the communal areas. Staff spoke about people in a very respectful and positive manner. We saw several instances of staff sitting next to people they were assisting to eat at mealtimes. This enabled staff to make good eye contact with the person they were supporting and to engage people in some meaningful conversations about what they were doing and the meal they were assisting them to eat.

Feedback from partners was consistently and continually positive about the standard of care described in this quality statement. Partner agencies had no concerns about how staff treated people living in the care home which they said was always with kindness and compassion.

People spoke positively about the care and support they or their family members received at the service. One relative told us, “The staff there are exceptionally warm and friendly and my [family member] formed a lovely relationship with a lot of them.” Another relative added, “All the staff are kind, compassionate and caring.” Peoples relatives also told us staff always respected their family members privacy and dignity.

Staff we spoke with demonstrated a caring, compassionate attitude to care. They spoke about people in a respectful way, telling us, “As a HCA, it’s a profession that is my passion. You need to have these values if you want to be a care worker. We have good carers in this home. We try and go out of our way to help people.” They were aware of the need to provide care in a dignified way, “We make sure doors are closed, curtains and windows are shut. If someone knocks when you are doing PC, make sure the resident is covered or ask them to wait whilst you finish.”

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.

Staff were aware of the importance of supporting people in a way that promoted their independence, and of offering choice and control into how they wished their care to be delivered. They gave us numerous examples of this, for example one staff member said “When we start personal care, we bring 2 different items of clothes and offer them a choice. We ask for their consent.” Other comments included, “We show them show plates when offering meal choices. If they don’t want anything on the menu, we respect their choices”, “They choose whether to take part in activities or not, but we do encourage all of them to try” and “Before giving personal care, we always try and involve people in what we are doing. We cannot force people.” Staff told us people’s care records gave them a good overview of peoples individualised care and support needs. This included information about people’s differing dependency levels, which made it clear to what people were willing and capable to doing safely for themselves, and what tasks they would need additional staff support with.

We observed staff support people to maintain their independent living skills. For example, people who were willing and capable of safely eating and drinking, and walking independently around the care home without the need for staff assistance were actively supported and encouraged by staff to do so.

People were supported to maintain family and other relationships that were important to them. There are no restrictions apart from mealtimes. Some families are not able to visit but we try and give them a sense of belonging.

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.