Oaklands (Essex)

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

We did not look at all quality statements for Responsive at this assessment. The service was responsive. This rating uses some scores from the previous inspection. The provider was responsive to people’s needs and assessed, reviewed, and appropriately adjusted their care plans as required.

This service scored 68 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People’s care plans did not fully reflect their life story and social needs. Instead, we found this information in a separate document called Remembering Together. The provider had this placed in care folders towards the back. The impact of this meant that care plans felt task focused and less about meeting the persons emotional needs. The provider was responsive when we brought to their attention that the wording in one persons care plan could be viewed as disrespectful. The provider made immediate changes. The provider was in the process of reviewing and updating all care plans to ensure they were person centred. The care and support we observed from staff on the day of assessment was respectful, dignified and person centred.

Staff told us they offer choices and encourage independence, this was reflected in the care we observed. A member of the management team said, “staff have regular supervisions and annual appraisals (Growth Conversations) to support their understanding of person-centred care. HC -One focuses on continuous learning to provide our staff with the tools they require to deliver the person-centred care expected of them.”

We observed person centred care. We observed staff knowing people well, using peoples preferred names and adapting their approach to suit the needs of the person they were supporting to ensure the best outcomes. We were told care plans are reviewed monthly; care reviews are completed with the resident and or relatives to ensure the person-centred care delivered is as the resident wants it to be. Audits identify areas for improvement, and these are added to the action plan for improvement. The provider is working with an external provider to move away from paper care plans and build online care plans that will be personalised.

People experience care from a staff team and provider who welcomes the resources available to them, for example, staff have received additional training from the local authority covering dementia care, care planning and other clinical/care related topics. People also receive support from the Dementia Crisis team who have been particularly useful and responsive when residents have experienced emotional distress and de-escalation is required.

A member of the management team said, “At Oaklands we care for vulnerable residents who have diverse health and care needs. To ensure that our care is joined up, flexible and supports choice and continuity, we work collaboratively with our commissioners, social workers, district nurses, G.P’s and dementia support teams.”

A member of the management team said, “The Friends of Oaklands is a volunteer group who work closely with us. They support our residents to ensure they have regular and meaningful contact with our local community in the form of the monthly Dementia Café. This is open to all members of the community and is held at the care Home. These volunteers tend to our gardens and encourage our residents to join in and help. They also arrange for various activities in the home, such as Songs and Smiles, a group of toddlers and their mothers who will come and meet the residents and sing-along with them. All these activities provide stimulating and meaningful environment, especially for those living with dementia.”

People are provided with information when they move to Oaklands that includes but is not limited to, the homes philosophy of care, how to give feedback on care, the people involved in the care, the homes registration, advocacy, health and wellbeing, quality assurance, statement of purpose and additional services.

The provider has processes in place to provide information to people this includes a policy on accessible communication.

A stakeholder said, “I have been to a couple of resident and relative meetings. There is a great atmosphere, and relatives and relatives are clearly confident in raising their thoughts and questions. They are also encouraged and welcomed.” A family member said, “At the last relatives meeting they asked what we wanted, we said named bags for socks. The manager got them, and staff put socks and pants into the bags at night when [relative] takes them off, now they don’t get lost.”

A member of the leadership team said, “We have a complaints process, when people raise concerns we listen and ask if the person wishes the complaint to be managed under our complaints policy or managed more informally as a concern. Most of the time people are raising as concerns rather than formal complaints, these are recorded on an online system which generates actions such as investigating the concerns and identifying lessons learnt.”

The provider has systems and processes in place to in involve people and their families in care. This included the pre assessment process, remembering together document completed by families to help capture peoples live stories, resident and family engagement meetings. The provider has processes in place to encourage people to give feedback, this includes, ‘Have Your Say’ live feedback stations’ in the home, annual resident and relative feedback surveys, complaints process, observation feedback forms and professional feedback surveys. The provider also signposts people to give feedback through external networks such as CQC and Carehome.co.uk.

We did not look at Equity in access during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

A family member said, “The activity person is fantastic, residents who are non-verbal are included, people in chairs are included and people with dementia are included. They have just stared going on outings, they visited a garden centre.”

The turnaround manager said, “We are aiming to have activities across 7 days, we have just recruited to enable this.”

The provider had systems in place to ensure people's feedback was received. Staff provided people with person-centred care and people were given choices and encouraged to follow their interests.

The provider has systems and processes in place to in involve people and their families in planning to the future, this includes moving out of the service and planning for end of life care planning.