McRae Lane

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• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Staff understood their responsibility to provide people with safe, high quality care in line with the service’s vision and values. They were well supported by the home manager, who was suitably skilled, knowledgeable and experienced. The home manager understood the needs of people using the service and how these should be met. Staff were encouraged to raise concerns and felt listened to. Staff were provided fair and equal opportunity at work and were valued and respected. The home manager checked the quality and safety of the care and support provided to people and any issues identified were acted on and used to support staff to improve their working practices. The home manager understood their role and responsibilities and demonstrated compliance with regulatory requirements. The service worked with partners to support people to experience positive outcomes in relation to their needs. Feedback was sought from people and staff about how the service could be improved. Feedback was used, with other learning, to make improvements to the service when this was required.

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.

Staff understood the vision and values of the service and knew how to achieve these through their working practices. The home manager encouraged staff to put people first when providing care and support. They told us, “It’s about encouraging staff to make sure the way they support people is focussed on the person.”

Arrangements were in place to ensure staff were focussed on the vision and values of the service and understood how to achieve these. The home manager used staff supervision and team meetings to discuss and review with staff how they were achieving the service’s aims through their working practices.

Staff were well supported by the home manager and comfortable approaching them for advice and support when needed. A staff member told us, “She knows what she’s doing and gives me a lot of support in supervision. She builds my confidence. She is an experienced and good manager.” The home manager was knowledgeable, experienced and understood the needs of people using the service. They told us, “I want staff and people to be happy when I come in and that makes me feel that I am leading and managing well. I make sure there is an open and inclusive environment for everyone so there are no barriers and people and staff feel they can trust me.”

The home manager understood the priorities for the service and how these should be achieved. They used guidance and support from local networks to help improve their knowledge and practice in relation to how the service was delivered. They undertook regular training to ensure they were up to date with current practice.

Staff were encouraged to speak up and share any concerns they had about the service. Staff were confident that any concerns raised would be listened to and acted on. A staff member told us, “We are encouraged to speak up if there is something wrong. We have procedures for this and can report to the manager or call the whistleblowing telephone line. I wouldn’t be scared to report anything as we are here to advocate for people who can’t speak so it’s the right thing to do and you don’t need to fear what you are doing.”

Systems were in place to support staff to speak up and share any concerns they had about the service. Staff were provided with the service’s safeguarding and whistleblowing policies which informed them about their responsibility to share and report concerns and how these would be dealt with by the service. The home manager used supervision meetings to discuss any concerns staff may have and staff were encouraged to speak freely and without fear of consequences.

The home manager understood the importance of a fair and inclusive workplace for staff. They told us, “Staff get the same training as each other and we all have to follow the same policies and procedures. We don’t distinguish by role. Everyone works together as a team to support people. Everybody has different hours and I share the relief hours across the staff team so it’s not the same people doing the extra hours. We make sure the staff mix is balanced so they are all learning from each other.” Staff told us they felt valued and provided equal opportunities to achieve their work goals and objectives.

Staff were provided support through relevant equalities training to inform their knowledge and understanding of inclusivity and fairness in the workplace.

Staff were encouraged and motivated to provide safe, high quality care to people. A staff member told us, “I’m motivated by feeling empowered and doing my job confidently. If you are supported through training and supervision you can deliver the best for clients.” The home manager told us they undertook a range of audits and checks to help them monitor, review and assess the actions, behaviours and performance of staff. They said, “I praise staff when I see good outcomes and make sure staff are recognised.”

Systems were in place to check and audit the quality and safety of the care and support provided to people. Issues identified through these checks were acted on and used to support staff to improve their working practices. The service did not have a current registered manager. The home manager confirmed they had submitted the relevant application to CQC to apply to become the registered manager for the service. The home manager understood and demonstrated compliance with regulatory requirements. They also understood their responsibility to provide honest information, suitable support and to apply duty of candour where appropriate.

People’s specific communication needs were well understood. This helped staff to identify and feed back to the home manager when people’s responses might indicate changes or improvements that might be needed to the care and support people received.

Staff were provided opportunities to share their views and give feedback about how the service could be improved for people. A staff member told us, “If there is anything I think needs to improve I will tell the home manager and the regional manager. I feel the managers will listen to us.”

We contacted health and social care professionals that worked with the service for their views about partnership working, but we did not receive any feedback.

Arrangements were in place for the service to work proactively with partners and seek their guidance and recommendations about how to support people achieve positive outcomes and experiences. The home manager met with healthcare professionals to share learning and experiences about the delivery of people’s care and support. This was then shared with the staff team to help them improve their practice and deliver high quality care and support to people.

Staff were supported to learn and improve in their role, through regular training, supervision and staff meetings. The home manager used feedback and learning to improve outcomes and people’s quality of life. They told us, “You have to be observant to how people respond when you are planning to do an activity to see if people want to do this. So, when planning activities these are always done based on how people respond through body language, vocal sounds and facial gestures. When it comes to mealtimes it’s about trying new things to see what people like. Everyone here is on a specialised diet and we monitor what people like and if things don’t go down well we know to give it a miss and try something else.”

Systems were in place to obtain feedback from people, staff, relatives and others involved in people’s care, to help the service learn and improve. The home manager used the learning from audits and checks to make improvements to the quality and safety of the care and support provided to people.