Care Inspectorate notes meaningful inclusion

In January 2019 the Care Inspectorate inspected the care home services for young adults aged from 16 to 25 years provided by Cairnlee House, Camphill School Aberdeen.  The visits were unannounced, and the inspection focused on 2 aspects of Cairnlee’s care home services, namely

1. Quality of care and support
2. Quality of management and leadership

Quality Assessment grades awarded by the Care Inspectorate are important, both as independent assessments of quality and as the public currency by which commissioning and other decisions are made.  The Care Inspectorate currently use a six point grading scale, which grades areas inspected from Excellent (Grade 6) to Unsatisfactory (Grade 1).

Camphill School Aberdeen were very pleased to be awarded Grade 5 (Very Good) by the Care Inspectorate on both inspection points.  Martin Alfred, Cairnlee’s Manager, said:

We are pleased to have been assessed as Very Good by the Care Inspectorate. The team works hard to ensure that the young adults that come to Cairnlee House are well supported and have the opportunity to learn, overcome challenges and reach their potential. We look forward to continuing to develop the provision and to take on board the very helpful feedback from external bodies

During the inspection people living and working at Cairnlee commented to the inspector

• Words cannot express how grateful we are that … is in such a caring, nurturing environment. He has a meaningful life, producing pottery, needle work and weaving and works in the garden
• I really like it here, we are like a big family
• The co-workers are good, I have learned things about other countries and cultures

The Care Inspectorate report highlighted the following aspects of care which contributed to Cairnlee’s high scoring grades:

• People had a shared responsibility and were being supported to carry out general household domestic tasks whatever their abilities. This meant that people felt valued and included
• People could be confident that they would experience stability in their care and support from co workers that knew their needs, choices and wishes
• Care and support was very responsive to changing needs due to the shared living model at the service
• [Students were] meaningfully involved in the development of the organisation that supports them….[including] satisfaction surveys, regular house meetings and [meeting] with people individually to discuss future plans

Find out more about Camphill’s sector leading care