Abbots Lawn

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

People’s needs were assessed and reviewed regularly to ensure they could be effectively met. People told us that the care they received was in line with their preferences and staff took the time to get to know them. The provider and registered manager worked in line with legislation and evidence-based practice to ensure good practice was followed by staff. For example, they used tools such as Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) to monitor people’s nutrition and hydration. People were supported to live healthy lifestyles and were able to access external healthcare professionals such as the GP when needed. Staff were observed to consistently ask people for their consent when offering support throughout the day. Consent was respected and if a person declined support, staff would return later to ask whether they had changed their mind. Staff worked well as a team and with other professionals to ensure the best outcomes for people.

This service scored 71 (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 their relatives were happy with the care they received and told us this was in line with their preferences. Care records showed people and their family members were involved in developing and planning care, and their likes and dislikes were clearly documented.

Staff knew people well and confirmed that they were given time to read care plans to ensure the care they gave was in line with people’s needs. Staff followed best practice guidance, and this led to good outcomes for people. Staff used recognised tools to assess the risk of malnutrition, weight loss, skin breakdown and depression.

Care plans demonstrated that people's needs were assessed before they were admitted to the service to ensure their needs can be safely met. People had been involved in the shaping of their own care to ensure it was personalised to them. Care plans were regularly reviewed and audited by the registered manager or seniors to ensure they remained up to date and relevant to the person receiving care.

People and their relatives spoke positively about the care and support they received at Abbots Lawn. They told us they were involved in decision making, from day to day decisions through to major decisions regarding their care.

Staff knew people well. People had their health monitored to help ensure staff would be quickly aware if there was any decline in people's health which might necessitate a change in how their care was delivered. This helped ensure there was a consistent approach between different staff and this meant that people's needs were met in an agreed way each time.

The provider has processes in place to ensure people’s care plans were regularly reviewed. They followed best practice guidelines and used tools such as MUST to monitor nutrition and hydration; and Waterlow to monitor risk to skin integrity to ensure care was delivered in an evidence based manner. The registered manager ensured staff received training in the appropriate legislative areas, such as the Mental Capacity Act 2005 to enable staff to support people in the least restrictive way and where necessary in their best interests.

People's needs were met by a range of different health and social care services working together. People’s care plans detailed which external professionals were important in their care and staff actively involved them when necessary, for example, the mental health team. People told us they felt well supported by both staff at Abbots Lawn and the other professionals which worked round them.

Staff felt they had enough time to meet people’s needs and told us information about any changes to people’s needs was communicated promptly. There was a staff handover meeting at each shift change this gave sufficient time to exchange any information. Staff told us that the handover was good, they said, “Information sharing is good,” and, “Following a doctors visit the nurse speaks to all the staff on duty immediately and shares anything.” We saw staff working together to meet people’s needs.

Staff told us and feedback from professionals confirmed that they had good links and lines of communication. The service worked with a wide range of professionals such as dentists, opticians, speech and language therapists, and general practitioners to ensure people lived comfortably at the service. Where staff had concerns about somebody's welfare the service had good links with professionals to ensure any changing needs were reassessed.

The provider and registered manager had good oversight over people’s care needs and how staff worked together with other services to ensure these were effectively met. This included when people were supported between services, for example, admission or discharge from hospital. They held regular meetings to ensure any messages across the team were shared to allow everyone to work together successfully.

People's health conditions were well managed, and staff supported people to access healthcare services. Care records contained details of multiple professional’s visits and care plans were updated when advice and guidance was given. People told us that they could see a doctor or other external professionals when they needed to.

Staff proactively sought support from external professionals when needed to promote people’s health and well-being. This included supporting people to access the GP or dentists when needed. Staff told us that they would be comfortable to contact external agencies when needed. They also said that they try to keep people as active as possible during the day, “It’s important to keep people involved in something they enjoy, it keeps them happy.”

Care records offered clear guidance to staff regarding when to involve external professionals in people’s care. Risk assessments were in place to minimise deterioration of health and allowed staff to spot when someone may need some additional support. The provider had in place a full activity schedule for people to get involved with to promote good physical and mental health.

We did not look at Monitoring and improving outcomes during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.

People told us they were involved in shaping their care and making decisions around this. Care staff were following people's documented wishes. People's right to decline care was understood. During our visit we observed that people made their own decisions and staff respected their choices.

Staff understood people’s needs and wishes. Staff said that, should people decline care or medicines, they would return a short while later to offer assistance again. We saw that staff had an understanding about consent and put this into practice by taking time to establish what people’s wishes were. We observed staff seeking people’s agreement before supporting them and then waiting for a response before acting.

The registered manager and provider had clear policies in place to ensure people’s consent to care was obtained and documented. All staff across the organisation showed good knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) provides a legal framework for making particular decisions on behalf of people who may lack the mental capacity to do so for themselves. The MCA requires that, as far as possible, people make their own decisions and are helped to do so when needed. When they lack mental capacity to take particular decisions, any made on their behalf must be in their best interests and as least restrictive as possible.