Dove Cottage flying high after CQC inspection visit

High standards of care and compassion from our staff and achievement by our young people has been heralded in a new report about one of our Young Adult Provision homes.

A Care Quality Commission (CQC) report after an inspection in May has ranked 1-2 Prior’s Court Cottages – otherwise known as Dove Cottage – as “good”, retaining the rating last achieved in 2018.

Rating the service as “good” in all five categories of “safe”, “effective”, “caring”, “responsive” and “well-led”, highlights of the inspectors’ report included:

• “Staff demonstrated how the support they provided to people achieved successful outcomes, which resulted in people experiencing an improved and enriched quality of life. For example, improving people's abilities to communicate their needs, reducing incidents involving increased anxieties and frustration and developing life skills to promote their independence.”
• “People felt valued by staff who showed genuine interest in their well-being, quality of life and created a warm, inclusive atmosphere. We observed staff consistently treat people with kindness and a friendly demeanour, which visibly raised people's spirits and mood.”
• “There was a tangible, person-centred culture within the home and staff demonstrated genuine empathy for people and passion to provide high quality care for them.”
• “Staff understood and skilfully supported people's communication needs to ensure they had access to information in a way they could understand. This included using 'easy-to-read' formats, pictures, simple language, and 'social stories' which simplified language with symbols and figures to support people to understand the meaning.”
• “One relative said: "I would say it's an extremely well run organisation, with an extremely strong culture of excellence. I think they [registered manager and provider] run it efficiently and they are genuinely world class."”

Emma MacKay, Young People’s Wellbeing Lead and Registered Manager for Dove Cottage, said:

“This was a hugely heartening report to read with wonderful comments from inspectors and families of our young people alike. One of the most important things to take from it is recognition of the high levels of training of staff members and the care and compassion they provide. It is these two factors that build the foundation for all of our young people’s achievements to come from. Huge congratulations to the staffing teams in Dove Cottage for their incredible work, day in day out.”

Our other three Young Adult Provision homes registered with the CQC are all rated as “good”, while our residential home for young people aged 5 to 19 is ranked as "good" by Ofsted.

Find out more about our education and residential care provision