About the service: Crossroads House provides accommodation with personal care for up to 47 people. There were 39 people using the service at the time of our inspection.

People’s experience of using the service:

• People consistently were treated with exceptional kindness, compassion and respect. Staff were very patient and spent a great deal of time supporting people the way they wished to be treated.

• We saw a great number of very positive compliments and praise received by the service from people, their families and friends and healthcare professionals.

• Feedback included, “We cannot thank you enough for the change in our mum, and how settled she is” and “It’s the little things, like biscuits with tea/coffee, a cup and saucer and a warm welcome from staff that care. The care is outstanding, Mum is so well.”

• People were placed at the centre of the service and were given very person-centred care and support by kind, caring and empathetic staff.

• People received effective care and treatment from competent, knowledgeable and skilled staff who had the relevant qualifications to meet their needs. The provider had a good system to ensure all staff had regular training to keep them up to date with best practice. Training methods included online, face to face training and competency assessments.

• Activities were provided seven days a week and offered a wide variety of relevant and meaningful activity both inside and outside of the service.

• Staff meetings at all levels were used to remind staff of safeguarding processes. One member of staff told us “I wouldn’t be afraid to raise my concerns to management who would listen to me”.

• The service was specifically adapted for people living with dementia. People were encouraged to be as active as possible. All the staff had been provided with dementia training and were highly skilled in responding to people’s needs.

• The registered manager was passionate about sharing best practice dementia care. They had joined several groups and projects outside of the service to keep up to date with best practice and innovation.

• People benefitted from having a number of people including young children and students spend time with them. This helped raise the profile of good dementia care and challenged pre-conceived ideas of living in a care home.

• The registered manager was passionate about supporting people ‘all the way through their journey to the end.’ They went above and beyond to support relatives to spend time with their family member at the end of their lives. They told us, “We see them in the door and we journey with them. We attend every single funeral as we need to say Goodbye.”

Rating at last inspection: This is the first inspection of this service since the provider became a limited company and the location changed its registration.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection. The service was rated Outstanding at this inspection.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk