Chitty Barn, Dover

Chitty Barn in Dover, Kent, a residential home for adults with dementia, mental health conditions, sensory impairments, learning and physical disabilities was rated outstanding for being responsive and well-led following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), 16 March 2018.

It achieved the score of good for the safe, effective and caring categories.

The CQC report highlighted that everyone living at Chitty Barn has complex needs, including restrictive routines which impacted on their daily lives. Residents were supported by a dedicated trained team who had the skills and competencies to ensure people received the right individual support. They were positive and continued to look for strategies to increase people's ability to further improve their lives, such as slowly reducing the time they spent on their individual routines by concentrating on their agreed goals and inspirations.

People had agreed with health care professionals and staff to look at different ways and strategies to manage their behaviour. They were actively supported to be involved and have more control over their daily routines. With the help of health care professionals, individual behaviour training sessions and consistent staffing people's behaviour had improved enabling them to live a more independent life.

This had not been previously thought possible by staff as some people did not have the confidence to overcome their fears of not completing their daily ritual routines. Staff spoke with passion of how this was achieved and how they were going to continue to work in partnership with people to further improve their quality of life.