Watchdog hails work of Helensburgh charity
STAFF at a charity for people with learning disabilities have been praised for their dedicated work.
The Helensburgh office of Enable Scotland, based in West Princes Street, received an unannounced visit from the Care Inspectorate in April – and has now been hailed for the “compassionate care” being provided.
The charity’s housing support service helps people in their own home and to mix in the community.
Officially known as Enable Scotland East Argyll and Bute, it saw its support for people’s wellbeing graded as ‘very good’, while the same rating was given to its staff team.
Inspectors found there were significant strengths in aspects of the care provided and how these supported positive outcomes for people using the service.
The report stated: “People experienced warmth, kindness and compassion in how they were supported. Engagement between staff and the people supported
was respectful and attentive. People were valued and treated as individuals.
“During the inspection, we met with many people who relied on staff to identify changes in their health and wellbeing and to act upon it to keep them well.
“There were countless examples where staff strived to ensure people were as well as they could
be. Staff knew people so well that they could pinpoint small changes and were able to act to check what was causing the changes and then act on it.”
It also found that deployment was based around an individual’s needs, to help keep their support team small and recognisable.
Inspectors added: “Staff were cheerful, friendly and very motivated to do the best that they could to support people.
“People spoke positively about staff and, where people used non-verbal communication, we saw them smiling when staff approached them.
“It was heartening to observe warm relationships, as they indicated people’s confidence and comfort around the staff team.”
However, it was acknowledged that an area in which the service had struggled recently, in common with many other care services, was recruitment, which led to some people getting to know more staff members than other teams.
Inspectors stated: “Staff commitment to people getting the most out of their life was a strong feature of this service.
“Supervision was in use but management advised they needed to catch up with all staff to complete this.
“However, informal support was very much in place, which allowed staff to sometimes just get an opportunity to be reassured that they had done a good job or to reflect on what they could have changed to make things better.”