St Anne's Community Services - York DCA

On this page

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

People were given choice and control over their support and staff treated people with respect and kindness. People’s independence was promoted by staff but there was potential to develop this area of practice further.

This service scored 70 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People and relatives liked the staff and felt they were treated kindly. One person told us, “Yes I love the staff, I like them very much.” They described them as, “Kind and caring.” A relative gave examples of particular staff their loved one got on well with.

Staff and leaders spoke kindly and respectfully about the people they supported. One staff member commented, “St Anne’s care about people” and another told us, “I enjoy engaging with the clients, helping and making them smile.”

Professionals did not raise any concerns about the approach or kindness of staff.

People were happy with their support and felt staff understood their needs. A relative told us, “They (staff) know what to do and how to support them.” One person commented, “They (staff) know me, and I know them.”

Staff and leaders knew about people’s individual needs and preferences and were able to give examples of how they adapted their support to reflect this.

Systems were in place to identify people’s individual needs and ensure support was provided in line with this. Improvements had been made to support plans to ensure they reflected people’s preferences. Care notes showed that care was delivered in line with people’s individual needs.

People were in control of the care and support provided and made their own choices in respect of this. The support provided by staff helped enable people to live independently or with families, although there were potential opportunities for staff to promote people’s independent living skills further.

Staff told us how they supported people’s choices and ensured they were in control of the care they received.

Support plans were person-centred and built around people’s choices and wishes. Support plans included some ways for staff to encourage people’s independence. However, in care notes there was limited evidence of staff proactively promoting people’s independence and encouraging them to do things for themselves. This was something that had also been picked up in internal audits. There was an action for this to be discussed at the next staff meeting, but due to meetings being postponed this had not yet occurred.

People were supported by staff that understood their immediate needs and how to respond to these. One person told us, “I feel comfortable with them (staff).”

Staff confirmed they were confident about supporting people and how to recognise their needs and any signs of distress.

Staff indicated morale was generally good and they felt supported by management. One told us, “As employees, we’re encouraged to bring any issues.” The management team recognised that recent changes at the service had resulted in some staff leaving, but they told us how they had worked to bring staff on board with changes, trying to balance staff’s individual circumstances with ensuring that people had a consistent and good quality service.

Systems were in place to support staff wellbeing. Staff felt supported by the new management team. Team meetings had not always happened regularly but there were alternative ways staff could seek support or raise any issues. There were policies and procedures relating to HR, supervision and staff support.