The examples below provide insight into how other Good or Outstanding rated services are succeeding in this area of inspection.
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Independence for married couples
Staff used innovative and individual ways of involving people and their family, friends and other carers in their care and support plans, so that they felt consulted, empowered, listened to and valued. People were fully consulted about decisions that impacted on their care.
For example, there were married couples living in the home. Following discussions with them and their relatives it became clear none of them wished to share bedrooms. As such the provider accommodated them in rooms near to one another to allow them to easily continue with spending quality time together in privacy if they want to whilst respecting their choices.
Read more about this service here.
Care provider: The Royal Star & Garter Home - High Wycombe
Date published: January 2023
Stimulating memories
People were involved in the decoration of the property and the garden space. The house and garden had themed areas that were designed either to stimulate or entertain people. Other areas were designed to remind people of hobbies, holidays or occupations. For example, there was a caravan one person had requested in the garden to remind them of their holidays.
There was also half a car attached to the outside wall, which one person enjoyed cleaning, while another person who’d been a mechanic checked under the bonnet to tend to the engine. Others simply enjoyed sitting behind the wheel.
One area of the service was developing a children's play area for people's grandchildren and the local nursery school to enjoy. People told us they loved watching the children playing.
Read more about the service here.
Care provider: Landermeads Care Home
Date published: March 2020
Dignity, privacy and support for bereavement
Respect for privacy and dignity is at the heart of the service's culture and values. It is embedded in everything that the service and its staff do. People and staff feel respected, listened to, and influential.
Following the death of a very popular person at the service people who lived at the same accommodation were encouraged to speak to staff. A learning disability nurse was also available if needed to provide any further support.
People were made aware, through staff support, of further information including videos and easy read information regarding dying and bereavement. Staff also spoke to people and asked them in which way did they want to remember the person who had passed away. The collective decision was to have a memorial bench in which they could sit on and think of the memories of their friend.
Read more about the service here.
Care provider: Creative Support - Doncaster Personalised Services
Date published: February 2020
Dignity at meal times
Where people required staff assistance to eat and drink, this was provided with great respect and dignity. Staff were unrushed, kind and patient, giving explanations as they talked with people and ensuring they were happy and relaxed.
Independence was promoted. For example, people who had trouble with their hand dexterity were enabled to eat independently by using plates with a raised lip to prevent spillage. The use of a customised apron, bespoke table mat and named place setting helped to personalise their dining experience and secure a high sense of dignity and self-worth.
Read more about this service here.
Care provider: The Byars Nursing Home
Date published: August 2019
Reducing anxieties
The provider has a pro-active approach to reducing anxiety and stress involving a range of specialisms/techniques from the whole team. This helps to keep people safe by enabling them to maximise their independence and wellbeing.
For example, staff use mirroring techniques, matching process (abilities, environment and staff), independent stimulation, helping people to feel worthy and proud, noise and visual stimulation assessments, reality acceptance, life history work and relationship care (discussed in the CQC focus on Responsive).
Various therapies such as pet, doll, massage and beauty therapy also helped people feel less anxious and therefore more able. Staff are extremely knowledgeable about each person, knew what could make them feel stressed and less able and knew how to support them, relating their care depending on how people were feeling.
Staff also placed a huge importance on ensuring people had a good nights’ sleep and rest. Night care plans reflected exactly how people wanted to be cared for. These were audited using a 52-point 'Care during the night' audit. The audit looked at exactly how people were behaving during the night and how their routine could promote effective sleep and therefore affect safety.
The provider had recognised how stressful being woken up and not having a good nights’ sleep could be for people, especially with dementia. The provider had invested in bedroom motion sensors as a result of auditing sleep, with best interest decision making involving people and families. These, along with detailed night care plans, reduced the need for regular night checks and the potential for staff to disturb people, as staff could monitor anyone getting out of bed who may be at risk if unsupported.
Read more about the service here.
Care provider: Wisteria House Dementia Care Ltd
Date published: January 2019
Championing dignity
The service has established dignity champions to support the wider staff team. Champions help raise awareness, promote resources and ensure dignity is regularly part of meetings and creative solutions.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Ensuring people’s privacy
When personal care was in progress, a light outside the bedroom door or a notice was placed on the door to prevent interruptions and ensured people’s privacy and dignity was maintained. At other times, staff still knocked and announced themselves before entering.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Helping to keep warm and healthy in cold weather
During self-care week, we visited every person we support with a mug and a sachet of hot chocolate or latte. This was done by our supervisors and during the visit we carried out a winter warmth check.
The weather has become much colder and it’s very important that the people we support are kept warm by wearing warm clothing, eating hot food and drink and have their heating switched on.
The supervisors simply checked on these things and advised people on the best way to keep warm and healthy. We backed this up with a newsletter giving people advice on keeping warm and getting a flu jab.
Care provider: Bluebird Care North Tyneside
Date published: April 2018
Helping people feel comfortable at meals
Recognising how daunting mealtimes may be to someone who’s just moved into the home, each menu is regularly updated with a series of ‘conversation starters’ to encourage new and existing residents to build relationships on topical items.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Reducing social isolation with technology
The service used Remind Me (an electronic computer program for promoting reminiscence) during support calls and the digital hospital passport (emergency information available about the person before they arrived at hospital). The Remind Me system helps reduce social isolation that people with dementia can suffer by providing personally related content and matching them with relevant localised activities, services and support.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Providing a space to help with sleeping
To support people who had difficulty sleeping, the home had a night-time lounge which provided dimmed lighting, footstools, blankets, calming music and aromatherapy.
Care provider: Anonymous
Date published: April 2018
Working with dignity
Staffordshire County Council developed and delivered two training courses (an e-learning course and a one-day workshop combined with distance learning) to promote the idea of ‘working with dignity’ and encourage a more person-centred approach to care, particularly among the harder-to-reach social care workers.
The course promoted the importance of upholding dignity and promoting person-centred care, to the harder to reach social care employees, and included developing an action plan, to ensure that the learnings were immediately applicable and could be embedded into practice
.Attending the course helped students learn just changing some of the words they used when speaking to people who need care and support could greatly improve the care relationship, and in one case led to a student returning to their service and detecting poor practice around this issue by another employee, who was suspended.
Care provider: Staffordshire County Council
Date published: December 2014