‘Excellent’ inspection for Loch Arthur

In February 2019 the Care Inspectorate inspected the housing support services provided by Camphill Loch Arthur.  The inspection focused on 2 aspects of Loch Arthur’s services, namely

1. Quality of care and support
2. Quality of staffing

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).

Loch Arthur scored an impressive 6 (Excellent) on both inspection points.

During the inspection people living and working at Loch Arthur commented to the inspector

• Loch Arthur provides a safe and compassionate home where our daughter is treated with dignity and respect.  Living in the community, alongside her peers and support workers enables her to enjoy a good quality of life, living together with a shared purpose, taking part in community and individual activities, and offering opportunities that enable her to become a more confident person
• I have lots of friends here
• (name) relishes her involvement in the daily routine of the house and Community, her sense of self-worth is clearly enhanced by her contribution and her enjoyment of the many and varied social and recreational activities in a caring, friendly and secure environment is most heartening

The Care Inspectorate report highlighted the following aspects of care which contributed to Loch Arthur’s Excellent grades:

• We found people were supported to get the most out of life. Loch Arthur Community had an enabling attitude and believed in people’s potential. Active participation was embedded in the ethos of Loch Arthur Community and everyone had meaningful roles and responsibilities.
• People were empowered to be as independent and in control of their life as they wanted or could be. This ranged from people making their own decisions, independent travel throughout the estate and beyond to some people taking some control over their medication.
• People experienced high quality care and support; this was due to it being provided by a stable and consistent team who knew people’s needs very well and who all worked well together.
• People supported were recognised as being experts in their own experiences, needs and wishes. We were very impressed to hear how people supported were meaningfully involved in the induction process of co-workers, sharing with them their needs and the help they required. This assisted in the building of trusting relationships so support was given and received in a way that people felt at ease with.
• Tenants meetings took place. Annually an external facilitator from outwith the community was invited to facilitate the meetings. This created an atmosphere of neutral facilitation where people were given the opportunity to share their opinions and experiences of living and working within Loch Arthur Community.

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