The Royal Elms Care Home

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• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

We looked at 2 quality statements in this domain. People and their relatives said the staff were kind, caring and knew their needs and how to support them. People were encouraged and prompted to complete things for themselves. A relative told us staff had supported their relative to use their walker so they could be more independently mobile around the home. Staff prompted people with everyday choices, for example around their meals. We observed positive interactions between people and staff throughout the assessment. People were comfortable with the staff support. However, we also observed 1 member of staff standing over a person when supporting them with a meal, which was not dignified. The registered manager said they would address this with the staff member. We did not observe any activities taking place. Staff said they arranged these when they could. Relatives said special occasions were celebrated, but they did not see many day-to-day activities taking place.

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.

We did not look at Kindness, compassion and dignity during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Treating people as individuals during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

People told us the staff team were supportive. One person told us, “The staff are nice, they give me what I want. My room is nice, just how I like it. The staff help me. They are good staff. Nice staff.” Relatives said important occasions, such as birthdays, were celebrated. However, they were not aware of many day-to-day activities being organised for people to engage in. A relative said the staff team had encouraged their relative to use their walker rather than their wheelchair so they were now more independently mobile. Another relative said the staff used a white board to communicate if they could not make themselves understood.

Staff said they encouraged and prompted people to complete things for themselves where possible. They also said how they explained the support they were going to provide to gain people’s consent. Staff said there were 2 nominated staff who arranged different activities for people. However, this was not possible a lot of the time as staff were supporting people.

There were no activities arranged for people to be involved in on the day of our assessment. We observed staff asking for people’s consent before providing support and providing people with every day choices around their daily lives. We observed one person whose first language was not English struggle to communicate their needs to staff. We found there had been several actions to be undertaken to support them effectively recorded in their care file such as receiving a visit from a religious representative and having meals from their own culture. We were told this had started, but the person had lost interest and so had been discontinued. People had personalised their bedrooms with photographs and their own belongings. Families and friends were able to visit the home and could enjoy visits in communal area’s or in people’s bedrooms.

Care plans identified where people were able to do things for themselves and where they needed staff support.

Relatives said staff knew people, and the support they needed, well. A relative said, “[Name] has settled in really well. They’re thriving and seems calm and happy.”

Staff knew people’s needs and said there was good communication within the staff team if anyone’s needs changed. Daily handovers took place, and a communication book was used to record any messages. An enclosed staff WhatsApp group was also used to ensure quick communication across the staff team.

We observed staff responding to people’s needs in a kind and caring way. However, staff were not always visible in the communal areas of the home due to supporting people in their rooms or other areas of the home.

We did not look at Workforce wellbeing and enablement during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.