Archived: Dom Polski Residential Care Home

Rating at last inspection:

At the last inspection, the service was rated as Good.

Rating at this inspection:

At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

Why the service is rated Good.

Staff were fully trained to meet people’s individual needs and had been safely recruited. Staff knew how to keep people safe. Risk assessments were in place to guide staff to provide safe support.

Medicines were administered as prescribed. Health professionals were very positive about the quality of the support provided, the registered manager and the caring nature of the staff and the support they provided each individual.

People and relatives we spoke with were also very positive about the staff team and their kindness. Staff knew people’s needs well and would spend time sitting and talking with them through the day.

Staff were supported by the registered manager through regular supervisions and team meetings. Staff said they enjoyed working at the service and that the registered manager was very approachable.

People are supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff support them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support this practice.

People’s health and nutritional needs were well met by the service. People and relatives told us the food was very good and they had a choice of meals. Traditional Polish food was offered and relatives and friends could share a meal with people if they wished to.

People were supported with their religious and cultural needs. A priest was available to conduct mass every day. The home was decorated with mementos of Poland. Signs around the home were in Polish as well as English. This helped people to feel comfortable in familiar surroundings and to orientate themselves within the home.

People’s wishes at the end of their lives were agreed with them and their family. People were supported to remain at Dom Polski at the end of their life if they wished to do so.

People and their relatives were kept well informed about the service and had opportunities through residents meetings and surveys to comment on the service and make suggestions for changes. We saw that comments received were acted upon.

Clear care plans were in place for each individual. New care plans for dementia were in the process of being introduced at the time of our inspection. A programme of activities was in place, which people said they enjoyed.

The registered manager had a comprehensive system of quality assurance and audits in place. The provider was said to be very supportive, however did not have any formal system to monitor the service.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

The inspector talked with two people who used the service. People were positive about the standard of care at Dom Polski. We were told: 'I like it. That's why I stay, I don't have to stay.'

And:

'I like it all I am very very happy that I am here.'

We saw that people who used the service or their representatives were involved in planning their care. People who used the service had their social and spiritual needs met. We found that procedures were in place to protect people from harm.

We saw systems in place to check the quality of the service provided at Dom Polski.

We found more steps were needed to ensure people had all their health needs fully met.

We talked with three people using the service, one relative, and three care staff working in the home including the registered manager.

People who used the service said they liked the staff.

We were told:

'The staff are very kind.'

People who used the service said they felt safe. We were told:

'You feel safe, nobody can get in, even the bosses have to ring the bell. There's no aggression from other residents.'

The relative we spoke with was positive about the care and support provided, and told us:

'Staff are alright, I visit every week and they help my (relative) and others who can't eat by themselves.'

One person felt the food did not always meet their needs because it was salty. We were not looking at food and nutrition during this inspection but we observed the meal at lunchtime. We saw that the majority of people, including this person ate all of this meal.

We saw there were sufficient staff on duty who were skilled at meeting the needs of people living at Dom Polski.

We found that although activities were provided they were not always planned in relation to the individual interests and abilities of people using the service.