Portobello Place

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 and their relatives told us they found most staff were caring and they were treated with kindness. However, people’s experiences were not always meaningful or respectful. They did not feel they were treated as individuals and staff focussed on tasks rather than the individual. Some relatives were concerned at the lack of expertise of staff when supporting people who lived with dementia.

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 who gave us feedback told us care staff were kind and caring. Comments included, “I get male and female carers, they are all nice and discrete and all very professional too, I just had ladies at the start, but I am accepting of having both male and females now” and “They [staff] always wear gloves and they always do it properly.” Some people told us interactions between them, and staff were stilted, lacked meaning and worth. For instance, one person told us “As you can see, they [staff] are all very amiable, pleasant and well meaning but there is just something about the lack of organisation, I would have expected a better coordination, there seems to be a lack of communication between them.” Another person told us, “They [staff] are all very nice, but they seem to think of you as an object rather than a real human being, a bod, a thing that has to be lumped around.” We have provided feedback to the registered manager about this for action or staff training. A third person told us “It is very strange here in many ways; I don’t think that they treat you as individuals.”

Staff who provided feedback told us how they would treat people with dignity and compassion.

We found staff did not routinely ensure they respected people’s dignity. We observed staff walked into people’s bedrooms without knocking or identifying themselves. We raised this with the registered manager for them to act. We also observed staff were kind in their interactions with people. People were given a voice to air their views in meetings. We observed one meeting in progress and found staff gave people time to speak up.

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 supported their basic needs. Comments from people gave mixed views on how well they were supported to live. One person told us “Yes, everything has gone well for me really, the care is very good, there are all the extra facilities, and the staff are good.” They added, “I go on some of the outings and go to some of the entertainments too, I have my lanyard (with a buzzer) and if I press it, they will always get me what I want, I am a proper lady of leisure these days.” Other people told us they experienced some delays in the support they received. Comments included, “Yes, I do feel safe here, I know that eventually someone will come along and something will happen” and “Today at 8.30 I rang my bell to order my breakfast because no one had come but then nothing happened and at 9.30 someone did come in and asked what order I wanted!” Some people felt they did not always have opportunities to continue to enjoy the outdoors as they used to. One person told is “There are not enough carers, and they have not time to put me in my chair and take me outdoors… I have not been out in fresh air for such a long time.” People’s relatives did not always feel staff had the right skills to support and care for people living with dementia and their family member’s needs were not always met. Comments included “Many of the staff do not have any understanding of dementia and therefore do not appreciate the changing and challenging behaviour. They will leave drinks out of reach and not recognise if they [people] have had a drink or not” and “Staff are not well trained in dementia care.” The relative added staff had no understanding when assisting people with meals, for example, down to the size of spoon they used.

Staff told us people had access to a call bell, and they knew how to answer these when they were activated. Staff also told us they used people’s non-verbal communication skills such as facial expressions to assess if they needed help.

We observed staff were task focused; this was supported by what people told us. Although staff responded to call bells when they went off, we observed staff did not always spend meaningful time with people. We observed some of the language and tone used by staff was not appropriate to the situation. For instance, one member of staff was overheard speaking with a raised voice to “come back” to a person after they had walk away from the dining room. This manner was not appropriate.

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.