• Care Home
  • Care home

Archived: Pilton House Trust

Pilton House, Pilton Street, Barnstaple, Devon, EX31 1PQ (01271) 342188

Provided and run by:
Barnstaple Old People's Housing Association Limited

Important: The provider of this service changed. See new profile

All Inspections

26 September 2013

During a routine inspection

There were 24 people living at the home when we inspected and we spoke with seven people about their experiences. Two relatives gave us their views about the quality of the care. We spoke with seven staff about their understanding of people's needs and health and safety in the home. A visiting professional with responsibility for nursing care gave us feedback about the service. We looked at key documents including care plans, daily records, maintenance, and quality assurance records.

People told us they felt safe and well cared for with comments like 'They look after me lovely''. A relative told us, ''We're very happy with the care and support she receives here. The staff are very caring'. The home was clean and well maintained. One person commented 'I have a lovely room, which my family chose and it has glorious views'. Another person spoke about some of the activities available, they told us 'There's a garden outside with raised beds, which I did some planting in and really enjoyed it'.

Staff told us they enjoyed working at Pilton House. A robust recruitment system was followed, which protected people living there. Senior staff told us about a joint university based project with the Alzheimer's society, which they were involved with to promote best care for people with dementia. All of the records gave a good overview of people's needs and how their physical and emotional well-being was being met.

The provider was compliant with all four outcomes looked at.

20, 21 September 2012

During a routine inspection

We carried out an inspection of Pilton House on 21 September 2012. We received some concerning information, which meant that we focussed on the outcomes for people with regard to consent, nutrition and hydration, management of medicines, staffing and quality assurance. We found that the service was compliant with all of these outcomes for people.

There were 27 people living at the home when we visited. We looked at the records of four people in detail, and spoke with nine people about their experiences at the service. However, some people were not able to comment directly on their care so we spent time with them to help us understand what life was like at the home. This meant we spent time observing care and people's interactions with staff to see whether they had positive experiences. To do this we used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us about their experiences of care. We used SOFI for one hour in the lounge and spent another hour and half with people whilst they were having their lunch and evening meals. We spoke with two relatives of people living at the home, five staff and the deputy manager.

People said that they felt safe and in control of their day to day lives. For example, one person said the 'Staff are very kind, we're treated very well'. Another person told us 'I decide how I spend my time and where I want to be and the staff respect it'. We saw that people had freedom of movement throughout the home. Some people did not have capacity to make decisions and relatives told us 'We're always involved and kept informed about every little thing that happens to Mum'.

People told us that they were satisfied with the variety and quality of food available. For example, one person said 'Lunch is lovely, I've had two of these desserts already' and another person said 'We get excellent variety. Today we've had fish and chips, with ice cream for dessert. I feel very full and satisfied now'. Another person told us they had put on weight since moving into the home, which they told us was a good outcome for them.

Medicines we were told were well managed. We saw people being prompted to take medicines that were prescribed for them by their GP. People told us that they regularly saw their GPs and their medicines were reviewed with them. People told us 'I let the staff deal with my tablets, it's much easier and I get them when I should do otherwise I might forget'.

People told us that if they needed help, it was given promptly and they did not have to wait for assistance. For example, we were told 'There's always plenty of staff around, if I need help I just call'.

People said that the home was 'well run'. Two relatives told us they were 'Always made welcome' and 'Kept up to date' with developments at the home and about their relations wellbeing.

At this inspection, we did not make any compliance actions although we made the provider aware of a couple of areas that they might improve. These related to the provider's arrangements for recording the legal status of relatives under the Mental Capacity Act 2005; practices when feeding people; and where skin creams that had been prescribed for people should be applied.

26 March 2012

During a routine inspection

We carried out a review with an inspection to Pilton House

on 28th March 2012 and we looked the key outcomes covering respect and involvement, care and welfare, safeguarding people from abuse, staff support and assessing and monitoring the quality of the service. The purpose of this review was to check compliance in these key outcome groups for people currently living in the home.

Some of the people that use the service at Pilton House have dementia and therefore not everyone was able to tell us about their experiences. To help us to understand the experiences people have we used our SOFI (Short Observational Framework for Inspection) tool. The SOFI tool allows us to spend time watching what is going on in a service and helps us to record how people spend their time, the type of support they get and whether they have positive experiences. Some people using the service were able to tell us about their experiences and we also spoke with visitors to the service and other health professionals.

People we spoke to said that their needs were being met, with comments like 'it's top notch here, fantastic place to be' and 'if I ring, someone comes ....always quick' and it's 'nice, relaxed and friendly'. Care workers were described as 'friendly' and 'they've got a good attitude'.

We met four visitors. Families of people living in the home said that they feel very involved with comments like 'they call me if there's anything so we're always in touch'. They told us they are 'always made welcome' when visiting. With regards to the care workers, visitors told us 'we can't fault them at all' and are skilled, in particular when caring for people with dementia, for example 'they're very good in calming her'. One visitor remarked that they had seen a huge improvement in the health and wellbeing of their relative and told us 'we're very happy as a family....We feel very secure now knowing she's here and being looked after'.

A professional told us that the team were 'very helpful and made sure I had everything I needed' as they were visiting a person. They also told us that there were 'plenty of staff' and 'it's very clean, hand gel and paper towels are everywhere'. The professional also commented that the team were quick to recognise the changing health needs of people and made 'appropriate referrals in a timely way'.

Overall, we found that Pilton House is a well run home that is constantly improving the quality of service that people experience.