Example A – a residential service
- This residential care service encourages both residents, families and staff to speak up to continually improve the home. To promote residents’ self-esteem and confidence, the home finds ways of ensuring residents can live life to the full by helping them to things they want to. For example, it will enable residents who like dogs to walk dogs, residents who like to help cook and make the tea to do so. Staff support residents to feel valued, important and individual.
- Care planning was very much centred around the wishes of the individual and provided responses that were geared to the needs of the individual. Safeguarding people was seen as fundamental and staff, families and service users were encouraged to speak up if they felt something was not right. This enables an ongoing dialogue about how things can be developed and improved, both for the organisation as a whole and for individuals. The service works hard not to be risk adverse, managing the risks that are associated with service user choice in ways that are facilitative rather than restrictive. So for example someone who enjoys a walk into town, but had cognitive impairment, was enabled to do so, by ensuring that the local community were able to contact the service should the person need support. Comments and complaints from residents are seen as ways in which the service can be developed, staff are encouraged to listen carefully to what is being said, and responses are open and include action plans for the future. Personal space is recognised as a right with staff providing support to service users to ensure that is respected and that dignity is paramount especially where a cognitive impairment might make that difficult for an individual. There was a good use of questionnaires, alongside care plan reviews, to ensure meaningful engagement and response to service user wishes. Care plans have a section on communication to ensure that staff are aware of how to ensure that service users are actively engaged in making decisions and choices about their lives. The aim of the service is to give their service users “a life they never believed they could have”.