Formations Care Services in Shipley, West Yorkshire has been rated outstanding by healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Inspectors visited 28 August & 6 September 2018 and rated Formations Care Services as outstanding in an impressive four areas, the effective, caring, responsive and well-led aspects of the report, and good for the safe element.
Formations Care Home is a residential care home providing care to predominantly older people and those living with dementia.
The service worked in a highly effective manner with other organisations to keep up to date with new research and development and to train staff. The provider had only one home and had recognised the need to ensure effective relationships were built with others to develop and maintain expertise. They had engaged with a range of health and social care professionals, bringing their skills into the home in a structured and thought out way to provide training and support. The CQC found the management team and staff had a very good understanding of these areas and health professionals praised them on their knowledge demonstrating this work had been very effective.
Feedback from health professionals about the caring nature of the home was also exceptional. Comments included, "Your home is such a credit to you all. The dedication and commitment you have put in to make the home so lovely is evident, you should be proud of yourselves." "Such a lovely place, I would live here," and "This is the kind of place you would put your mum, staff are always really pleasant, ladies and gentlemen are always looked after really well."
CQC inspectors also highlighted that care was exceptionally personalised with a strong focus on therapeutic interventions to meet people's social needs. During the inspection a resident had been displaying behaviours that challenged. Whilst other agencies had suggested medicines should be considered, the service had been keen to avoid this. They had analysed patterns in the person's behaviour identifying the person enjoyed being outside. Two greenhouses had been purchased, the person helped build them and then grew a range of fresh produce. The person was also supported to purchase an allotment and staff accompanied them there regularly. The resident no longer displayed any behaviours and enjoyed spending time in the greenhouse and at the allotment, providing food for the home to cook.
Residents and relatives were empowered to help run the service and a relative chaired the health and safety committee. They reviewed the service's risk management plan and any incidents and accidents which had occurred.
The manager said, "Relatives see a lot of what goes on and they like to be involved." People and relatives always sat on the recruitment panel for staff and the service's network 'service advisors' (local health professionals) also contributed to the development of policies and new working practices. The service also used its strong relationships with families to good effect.
