People living in the home who spoke to us said that staff respected their privacy and that they were treated with respect. One person said, 'The staff are excellent. They really look after us well.'
People living in the home said they are able to choose when to get up, and go to bed and what they want to do during the day. One person told us 'Tea is served between 4 ' 5.30 and I am able to go and help myself to what I want when I want which I like'.
One person told us that they were involved in deciding their care. They said that they talk to the staff, 'We have talked about how I want to get ready in a morning and what I want to eat and they wrote it down.'
People living in the home were complimentary about the care and support they received. One person said, 'Staff are very good, work very hard with a difficult job to do. I have no complaints'. Another person said, 'Staff are very kind, they go out of their way to help' People spoken to said the staff were very helpful. One person said, 'Staff are willing to go the extra mile'. Others said staff were kind and patient.
One person commented 'I would like more fresh air, not necessarily for a walk with a carer but just to be able to go outside and walk around the building'.
People felt that the home was kept clean and was pleasant to live in. One person said sometimes they were cold but others said it was too warm or it was comfortable for them. Staff were advised to remind people to speak to staff if they were not comfortable with the temperature or anything else. People living in the home were full of praise about maintenance of the home. They said any repairs needed were promptly attended to and that they were very happy with this.
A member of staff talked to us about the new care plans. She found the new care plans informative but she found them difficult to follow but only in the sense that they were new and she had been used to the old system. She talked about her key worker role and was able to tell us which people she was Keyworker for and the type of things that she needed to do for them. Another member of staff told us that the care records were much more detailed now and gave a lot of helpful information.
Some people living in the home commented that the laundry service was not as good as it had been previously. They told us that the laundry person who had previously dealt with all the laundry had changed jobs in the home and all staff had become involved in doing the laundry. She had known whom items of clothing belonged to and quickly returned them. Since she had moved jobs clothing went missing more often and it seemed to take a while for articles of clothing to find there way back to the relevant person. The owners and manager said they would look at how to improve this.
Most of the service users stated that the food was good. One service user was not happy with the food, saying that the presentation was poor and the vegetables overcooked. Other people spoken to disagreed with this and said they liked the food.
Staff spoken to felt that their recruitment process had been thorough, with a good and helpful induction.
Staff spoken to said they felt well supported by senior people in the home.
One member of staff stated 'I am supported by the Manager and deputy if I have any problems with anything'. Another member of staff said, 'I can talk to senior staff anytime, they will always help if they can.'
A member of staff told us she had attended regular relevant training sessions, enjoyed the atmosphere in the home and loved caring for the service users. The member of staff talked about the training programmes she had completed, and stated that she had had a supervision session in the last month. She was able to talk about the needs of the service users with dementia.