Views Voyage Care Voice – S2E4 part 1: Great quality care and support in Scotland
After a successful pilot season of Voyage Care’s first ever podcast, we are excited share our second season with everyone! Relaunching as Voyage Care Voice, our podcast will be showcasing real people with real insights.
In this season, we’ll be focusing on how important quality is in the social care sector. This week, we’re hearing from Paul Brockie, Operations Manager in Scotland, Dyanne Henderson, Service Manager and Kayleigh Macpherson, Senior Support Worker at Treddinoch. Treddinoch is a residential care home in Scotland, that is rated the equivalent of Outstanding by the Care Inspectorate. Dyanne, Kayleigh and Paul will be discussing the quality differences between Scotland and England, and how they ensure they’re providing the highest quality care for their residents.
Stay tuned for part two of this episode next week! We’ll be chatting to John, a family member of a resident at Treddinoch. He’ll be telling us all about his sister’s high quality experience at the residential care home, and how it has changed her life for the better.
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If you’d like to learn more about high quality care and support in our residential care homes across the UK, please visit our web page.
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Read the transcript of the podcast below.
Nicole:
Hi, I’m Nicole. And with me I’ve got Paul, our Operations Manager for the north. Dyanne, the Service Manager at Treddinoch and Kayleigh our Senior Support Worker at Treddinoch. Did you each want to introduce yourself and give us a brief overview of what you do?
Paul Brockie:
Hi there, I’m Paul Brockie. I’m the operations manager for Scotland. So basically, my main role is supporting the services, making sure the growth for Scotland is happening regularly, and also supporting with the quality.
Paul Brockie:
The quality grades and the delivery of the quality services are of the utmost important to us and Scotland, as well as Voyage of course. And that’s me.
Dyanne:
Hi, I’m Dyanne, I’m the service manager at Treddinoch. I’ve only been doing this a couple of years, and I’m just here to ensure everybody that we support you to get the best care ever.
Kayleigh:
Hi, I’m Kayleigh. I’m the deputy service manager at Treddinoch. I’ve not long been promoted, and I work alongside Dyanne, again, just to ensure the best quality care for the people that they support, and ensuring their day-to-day lives.
Nicole:
Great. So I suppose the first question, I’ll come to you Dyanne first if that’s okay? What are some ways that you ensure high quality care and support at Treddinoch?
Dyanne:
We just make sure that everything’s tailor made to each individual in the most professional way, but also to show the compassion and understanding of each individual we support. We just make sure everybody’s treated with empathy and respect, and that the needs are tailor-made to give them the best shot in life.
Nicole:
Great. And Kayleigh, as a senior support worker, would you like to add anything to that?
Kayleigh:
We have a very holistic approach to the people that we support, obviously they each definitely have their own individual needs.
Kayleigh:
We have really good relationships with each individual, and with that we are able to ensure their quality of care looking at each of their needs. But also, together as a residential setting, we manage a lot with our guys all together.
Kayleigh:
So, it’s actually just quite like a big family that we have here, it’s very close, so yeah.
Nicole:
Is there an example of you going that extra mile for a resident’s care needs?
Kayleigh:
So we can have an example, the person that we support who we were speaking of earlier whose brother was on, it was her birthday last year and she loves ABBA. And obviously we had lockdown, we had the restrictions and stuff, but we still managed to throw an ABBA themed party. The staff were dressed up in… Is it 60s ABBA was? They were all dressed up in their 60s gear and stuff.
Kayleigh:
Her favourite food is McDonald’s. We bought in stuff so it was like we had McDonald’s at home. Everybody participated in it, and it just brings them all together, and you actually see them happy.
Kayleigh:
So we managed to bring in the stuff from the outside that they enjoy inside for them still to have a good day. As much as it’s one person’s special day, everyone gets involved in it. And all the residents love it.
Kayleigh:
Like, there’s another wee man that we look after. It was his 60th birthday at the start of lockdown, and as it was a special birthday for him, we wanted to do something really good for him.
Kayleigh:
So at this time following government guidelines and that, we managed to hire a piper for an hour. And we have a massive back garden, and the piper stood down in the corner of our garden and he played the bagpipes for an hour.
Kayleigh:
And all the residents were out at the back, and there was lots of tears of just happiness, the staff were there. And just seeing everybody come together, it makes times special and enjoyable for them, but at the same time, the staff are also enjoying it.
Kayleigh:
So yeah, I think that makes us a pretty good team and just like a big family here.
Nicole:
Oh gosh, that sounds amazing. I’m quite jealous I wasn’t there.
Kayleigh:
Oh it was so good. We have videos and that. It was a really good time.
Nicole:
what does the phrase high quality care and support mean to you, and why it’s so important?
Paul Brockie:
Yeah. So what good quality care looks like to me first and foremost, it’s the people we support, well looked after, they’re happy. We’re promoting independence, and most certainly not deskilling anyone or taking anything what they like to do away from them. We want to enhance.
Paul Brockie:
Active support has been a great thing that Voyage Care are definitely leading the way on. I meet with a lot of the providers in MDT meetings, et cetera, commissioners. And I really, really do take pride in what Voyage promote through ETHOS and what we do.
Paul Brockie:
And active support is superb, making sure the guys are well looked after, medication, even right down to stop that we’re not over-medicating people. I think as long as people are thriving, healthy, and we’re really promoting independence, activities, we can do things as a group, but also, make sure things are really, really person centered to that individual. And I think we really do lead the way across the sector in that regard.
Nicole:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we refer to ourselves as sector leading and it’s this kind of approach that help us be that. Dyanne, what does high-quality care and support mean to you?
Dyanne:
Me personally, it means it’s always about the individual, the guys we look after. I was brought up with people with learning disabilities, I’ve always had a passion for care. And to me, the paperwork side’s just about what needs to be done. To me, it’s being there for that person, understanding their needs.
Dyanne:
A lot of those don’t have families, we’re the own family that they do have. So if we don’t care for them nobody else will. And they all deserve the highest quality care, every single one of them. There’s nobody that doesn’t deserve to be cared for in a great way.
Dyanne:
A couple of wee examples that I’d like… With the lockdown, some of the activities they’ve not been allowed to do, so we have recreated the same ones at Treddinoch. We’ve painted a bowling alley on the fence and put lights up and stuff, so that it kind of recreates actually going to the bowling for one of the people we support, because that was his passion. He loved going every week. And it’s just doing individual things like that.
Dyanne:
The movie nights instead of the cinema. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do the swimming, there’s no way we could put a pool in at the back. So we’re looking forward to going back to that.
Dyanne:
I just want to see the guys happy and healthy, and happy with the love, and feeling this is a home.
Nicole:
I think the key word that keeps coming up here is family, isn’t it? And that’s such a lovely thought of trying to make that family feel, and it is their home.
Dyanne:
Before COVID, we actually had the back garden filled, and there must’ve been about 60 members there. We had families there between the people we support, the staff. We had kids, we had grandkids. And it was an absolutely amazing experience just to see them being included in everyday life with everybody else.
Dyanne:
It was no other name. It was no people with difficulties and average people. It was just, everybody just enjoyed the experience of being together. And it was an amazing day.
Nicole:
And last but not least, obviously Kayleigh, what does high-quality care support mean to you? Just why is it so important?
Kayleigh:
I’ll probably just really echo what Dyanne has just said. First and foremost, it’s the people that we support. You need to know them as a person and get to know them. And once you’ve got that relationship with them, you can build on that.
Kayleigh:
The team can work together to provide them. Sometimes some person might want somebody to support them one day, but the next day they don’t want them and they want someone else, and the team are very adaptable to that.
Kayleigh:
I think training provided to the staff too with Voyage is great, I’ve never heard any complaint in anything towards the way they’re treating you. The staff always come out of training really positive, and they actually seem keen to take on new challenges and stuff after being to training.
Kayleigh:
So that’s quite a positive thing because then they adapt that to the guys. That’s the only other thing other than everything Dyanne just said I would add.
Dyanne:
Yeah. Sorry. Can I add on, we’re supporting another service at the minute. And we’re now looking at ways to try and possibly include them on outings and trips along with the people that live here, because one of our guys originally is from Aberdeen. So one of the guys at the other service, he supports Aberdeen football team.
Dyanne:
So we’re looking to try and possibly get when one goes home to visit family, this other one could go and watch the football game, and just kind of a make it like an extra part in team Treddinoch.
Kayleigh:
Expanding our family.
Nicole:
That’s really cool, actually. So almost like a community get together from other services.
Dyanne:
Yeah.
Nicole:
Paul, if I come over to you next, if that’s okay? We know that obviously quality in Scotland is slightly different to England. Could you talk us through that a bit more?
Paul Brockie:
Yeah, of course. So the care inspector in Scotland is slightly different from the CQC in England, whereby the grades, for example… So you go from four good… we’ll not go any lower because we don’t have any lower. So we’ll go for good as grades of four, grades of five is very good, and then you get grades of six, which is excellent.
Paul Brockie:
So basically I believe the QC is good straight on to how it’s standing. So, technically, our very good in Scotland is the equivalent of outstanding in England.
Paul Brockie:
The majority of our services in Scotland, we don’t have any individual grades lower than four, and the majority of the services are graded very good, with the exception of Treddinoch which is actually graded excellent, which is almost unheard of in Scotland.
Paul Brockie:
Unfortunately, I’ve dealt with a lot of care inspector officers, some are better than others, but they’re all good, to be fair. And some of them have actually stated to me that they don’t give out grades of sixes, which is frustrating. So the fact that Treddinoch has achieved six is truly phenomenal.
Paul Brockie:
And Kayleigh and Dyanne, as they alluded to earlier, they’ve actually not been in the manager’s position and deputy position that long in the grand scheme of things. But what they’ve done is they’ve carried on the brilliant work of the previous manager, which needs to get a special mention.
Paul Brockie:
But basically, the transition from manager to Dyanne and Kayleigh has been seamless, and actually we’ve enhanced a lot of things. So the fact that we had the grades of excellent and maintained it, is, as I said earlier, phenomenal.
Paul Brockie:
They have probably not done themselves justice. I’ve actually run out of superlatives trying to praise Dyanne and Kayleigh and the team at Treddinoch. They truly are a wonderful team. Kayleigh used the world family earlier on, and that probably sums it up wonderfully.
Paul Brockie:
The families of the people we support cannot praise the team any more. The attention to detail that they get into, that goes for paperwork, one-to-one support, the physical, the care and the moral side, words don’t praise the service enough.
Paul Brockie:
And the fact that during an unprecedented pandemic, the guys not only were fine and safe, they actually flourished. And that was down to the team and their innovative ideals and activities. And I cannot praise that service enough, to be honest.
Paul Brockie:
So quality is of the utmost importance to myself, the team in Scotland, as well as Voyage, of course. And my team, including Treddinoch really, really carry the torch for that, which I’m so proud and delighted that they’re doing. They’re very passionate that they make sure that the people we support get the best possible care and support that we can deliver.
Paul Brockie:
And we always say, if the care and support is good enough for their own mom, dad, brother, sister, that’s good enough then. If it’s not, why not? So that’s what we’re trying to work towards.
Nicole:
That’s fantastic to hear. And just a huge congratulations, obviously, to Treddinoch for getting such a great rating. It’d be great to hear a little bit about how you would prepare for that inspection and what steps you take to ensure success.
Dyanne:
Yeah. Obviously you can’t always prepare for the inspection because you don’t know when they’re coming. But what we do is we’re just a consistent team. We make sure the staff are updated constantly for, not even so much through written communication, I prefer to speak to each individual staff member so that I know that the information has been passed on.
Dyanne:
In other roles I’ve done in other jobs, people are afraid of inspectors and other professionals coming into the service. I’ve tried to instil not to do that, these people are here just to do a job. They’re here to make sure we are providing the best care for the people that live here.
Dyanne:
And her last inspection, because our paperwork and such was in such good order, her care inspector actually was sent out in the community with a couple of the people we support to actually whiteness how we provide the best support for them.
Nicole:
That’s a great view to take with inspection, it shouldn’t be something that’s really scary because you’re always prepared. Kayleigh, how did the inspection feel for you?
Kayleigh:
When that time, actually, the inspector came out, it was only my second, I think it was, acting senior shift. And I was on my own when they turned up. Yeah, I was a bit nervous, it was a bit nerve-racking. But I just thought, I know what I’m talking about so let’s just do it.
Kayleigh:
So I took them around. I introduced them to the people we support.
Kayleigh:
But to me, at the time it was a bit daunting, but it was also good. So then when you looked at everything, I went over some folders with them, and getting the good feedback is really good.
Kayleigh:
And then, the fact that he had not been able to look at and actually went and spent the time out in the community having an ice cream with some of the people we support, I think that shows that we’re doing something right, do you know what I mean? So yeah, it’s definitely a good feeling.
Nicole:
I bet it was their favourite ever inspection as well. Get an ice cream.
Nicole:
It’s been great to obviously talk about how quality is administered externally. Paul, it would be great to hear how we measure that internally through I think we have things like quantity questionnaires and internal audits.
Paul Brockie:
Yeah. So, from my perspective, Nicole, we have got… Manager supervision appraisals, we’re always talking about quality and how we prepare for the care inspector. We have got weekly team meetings and then we’ve get one big monthly meeting, and we’ve always got a section on quality and care inspectorate. And I also do a fortnightly report where I get an update, which again includes quality. I’ll probably say quality about 100 times here, but that’s how important that is to us.
Paul Brockie:
I’m delighted that both Dyanne and Kayleigh raised the point that we welcome the care inspectorate, or indeed the local authorities, whether that be the contracts and monitoring team or commissioning, because it’s just another cog in the machine, if you like, to make sure that we give the best possible care to the people we support.
Paul Brockie:
They’re not someone to be feared, that goes for the CQC, the inspectorate of Wales, it’s all about try and enhance the delivery of care. And we’re always willing to learn and improve, never stand still. And I think Treddinoch is a testament to that, that we never stand still with things.
Paul Brockie:
A big thing I like to do is we’ve got a care inspectorate folder on each service. And every time we do something new, whether that be extra training, specialist training, or even reviewing the menu planner, for example, where we’ve involved dieticians or specialists.
Paul Brockie:
So anything new will have a section in that care inspectorate folder that’s new since that last inspection. So it’s easy to bring out in evidence, because it can be a wee bit nerve-racking when people are speaking to the inspectors.
Paul Brockie:
So if you’ve got that folder where all evidence since the last inspection you’ve had, it’s just so much easier. And it also stimulates the management to be able to talk about what they’ve done rather than trying to remember things off the top of their head. So hopefully that could be a wee tip across the board for the other operational managers in Voyage.
Paul Brockie:
So it’s really just about planning. Dyanne commented earlier that the inspectors can turn up any time. And if you’re prepared, you’re all doing your paperwork regularly, which we do. We get many audits, stock checks, et cetera, where you’re making sure that the quality and detail… because again, that’s a key factor that you’ve got the evidence and written down to prove.
Paul Brockie:
And if you’ve kept on top of that, the guys at Treddinoch, and hopefully across the country is where we’ve nailed the… We’re keeping on top of the direct care, the model side, but if we keep on top of the paperwork side and the evidence, it means no matter who walks through that door, we’re prepared, and it’s not panic stations as well.
Nicole:
Dyanne, If I could ask you about the internal audits that you do at Treddinoch?
Dyanne:
I have tried to make sure that all the seniors take a part in filling out all of these, because it’s a good way getting to know the guys a wee bit better, especially seeing as we’ll add a new senior team. We’ve got new seniors, we’ve got a new manager and deputy, and new acting seniors.
Dyanne:
So I’ll try to include them all. And we delegate a wee section to each, so that then they’re then getting to know where everything is and all the folders, so that when we do get inspections, everybody knows where everything is. Everything’s organized so we don’t have to get this panic when somebody comes in.
Nicole:
And Paul, could you tell us about the quality questionnaires that we do?
Paul Brockie:
So just to echo what Dyanne and Kayleigh were commenting there about different steps we can take to capture each person, we’ve got the quality questionnaires. So we fill that out for each and every individual person we support. Those have got very intimate details, their likes, dislikes, health. And it captures a real good pragmatic approach, or a holistic approach, sorry, for those people in a very individual way.
Paul Brockie:
And that helps us develop. And that helps us in every day, the level of care with that support plan activities’ menus. And it’s also a good way of recording things.
Paul Brockie:
And also as well is then, the teams, and especially Treddinoch, we monitor things daily, weekly, monthly, because something that someone may have liked a month ago, two months ago, a year ago, they might not like now, and COVID has obviously changed a lot of things as well. So there will be a lot of change as restrictions are easing.
Paul Brockie:
The key thing here is knowing people extremely well. The staff team know the people we support very well, and that there’s evolution, that no one is standing still. There’s always that, can we do more? Can we change things? Can we improve things? And I think that willingness to evolve with the times, with the climate, with the challenges, I think that bodes well for the team, but specifically Treddinoch, Dyanne and Kayleigh.
Nicole:
Well thank you for you time, it’s been a really interesting discussion.
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