OSJCT Willowcroft

OSJCT Willowcroft is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 42 people. The service provides support to people who are living with dementia. People live over two floors in a purpose-built building. The home is separated into households and people share the use of lounge, dining and entertainment space. At the time of our inspection there were 36 people using the service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The registered manager had taken action to keep people safe and manage the risks they faced. This included action to ensure staff were aware of their responsibility to promptly report incidents, in line with the provider’s procedures. Staff demonstrated a good understanding of the action they needed to take to keep people safe.

People said they felt safe living at Willowcroft and received good support. People told us there were enough staff to provide the care they needed, and they were supported to take the medicines they were prescribed on time. People and their relatives were confident any issues they raised would be addressed by the registered manager.

The home had good infection prevention and control procedures in place. Procedures had been reviewed and updated to reflect the COVID-19 pandemic. Systems were in place to prevent visitors catching and spreading infections.

The registered manager had developed good relationships with health and social care professionals and worked with them to meet people’s needs.

The management team regularly assessed the quality of the service provided and had systems in place to make improvements.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 5 November 2020)

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to the management of injuries and incidents. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last comprehensive inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained good, based on the findings of this inspection.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe section of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for OSJCT Willowcroft on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

OSJCT Willowcroft is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 42 older people in one purpose built building. Some people accommodated are living with dementia.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People felt safe living at Willowcroft and said staff treated them well. People were supported to take any medicines they needed. There were enough staff to provide safe care for people. Staff had a good understanding of systems in place to keep people safe and were confident action would be taken if they reported any concerns.

The home was clean and the provider had taken additional infection prevention and control measures as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. People said staff followed these new procedures, including wearing additional personal protective equipment and cleaning more frequently.

The service was well-led, with an experienced registered manager. The registered manager said they received good support from the regional management team and senior staff in the home. People felt the management team had a good understanding of any issues in the home and led by example. The quality of the service was regularly assessed, and action taken to make improvements where needed. Concerns raised with the registered manager had been investigated.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 31 August 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to cleanliness of the home, the behaviour of some staff and the way the management team responded to concerns. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to coronavirus and other infection outbreaks effectively.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

OSJCT Willowcroft is a care home for up to 42 older people in one adapted building. 41 people were living in the home at the time of the inspection.

What life is like for people using this service

People said they felt safe living in the home and staff supported people to manage the risks they faced. People received support to take their medicines safely. There were enough staff to provide the care that people needed.

People were supported make choices and have as much control and independence as possible. People liked the food provided by the home and staff helped people where required. People were able to access the health services they needed. Staff received suitable training to give them the skills to meet people’s needs. The registered manager provided good support for staff to be able to do their job effectively.

People received caring and compassionate support from kind and committed staff. Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity. People and their relatives were positive about the care they received and about the quality of staff.

Improvements had been made to the support for people to take part in meaningful activities. People were involved in planning the activities schedule. Opportunities had been developed for people who were unable to participate in group activities to help ensure people did not become socially isolated. People had been supported to develop care plans that were specific to them. These plans were regularly reviewed with people to keep them up to date.

The service was well-led, with an experienced registered manager and management team. People felt the management team had a good understanding of any issues in the home. The quality of the service was regularly assessed, and action taken to make improvements where needed.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 1 March 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

The home was last inspected in December 2013 and was found to be meeting all of the standards assessed.

This inspection took place on 10 and 11 January 2017 and was unannounced.

There was a registered manager in post at the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

At the time of the inspection an activities coordinator was not employed by the service. There were two volunteers who regularly visited the service and provided a range of activities for people to participate. Although we saw some people enjoying these activities there was a lack of stimulation for people on an individual basis. Some people we spoke with told us they were often bored and frustrated at not having more to occupy their time and although they spoke highly of staff, they told us since the activities coordinator had left; the level of activities had significantly decreased. Having points of interest and objects of reference to pick up and handle can bring comfort to people living with dementia however, there was a lack of objects of interest for people to pick up and interact with.

People who used the service were positive about the care they received and their relatives about the service their family members received. They praised the quality and kindness of the staff and management. Staff spoke fondly of the people they supported. Most interactions observed between staff and people were positive particularly during mealtimes. We saw staff assist people to make menu choices and some staff joined people and ate their meals together. However, there were occasions when people were not always asked what they would like to do and their permission was not always sought prior to support being given.

People were very complimentary about the food. Snack stations were available throughout the home where people were able to help themselves to sweet and savoury snacks and drinks when they chose to have them.

People told us they felt safe when receiving care. Individual risk assessments were in place and staff we spoke with knew what to do if they were concerned about the safety and well-being of people using the service. Risk assessments were completed and where risks identified, care plans had been written which detailed the guidance for staff to follow to help mitigate these risks. Observations made during the inspection and our conversations with staff confirmed they knew how to support people in line with this guidance.

Medicines were managed safely and administered by trained staff. People were also well supported to with their ongoing health care needs and to access health care services.

Staff told us they had received training to help them deliver care and support to people effectively. Newly recruited staff completed an induction programme which included completion of the Care Certificate. This is an identified set of standards that care workers use in their daily work to enable them to provide compassionate, safe and high quality care and support. Staff demonstrated a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities as well as the values of the service. Staff were also supported to carry out their role through regular supervisions and training.

The provider regularly assessed and monitored the quality of care provided. Feedback from people and their relatives was encouraged and was used to make improvements to the service. People’s views about their care and support was listened to and acted upon and there was an effective complaints procedure in place.

People were positive about the care they received. One person told us 'very helpful they are here.' A person told us they experienced falls. They said staff came 'straight away' when they fell. We saw staff supported people who were living with dementia in a kindly way. They also involved external healthcare professionals in their care when relevant. People had clear care plans to direct staff on how to meet their individual needs. This included people who needed support with changing their position regularly. We saw care workers followed these care plans.

People were complementary about staff. One person told us about the 'very good staff.' Staff reported on the training programmes to develop their skills in meeting the needs of people. One newly appointed member of staff told us the provider's induction programme 'makes you reflect.' Staff said they were supported in their roles. One member of staff told us they had 'very regular' supervision meetings. They said they could bring up issues, such as further training they felt they needed.

We talked with people about the service they received. People we spoke with were appreciative of the care provided. One person described the 'marvellous' care and another described staff as being 'very particular' about meeting their needs. A person told us 'they keep us going' about the staff. People told us there were enough staff to meet their needs. One person told us 'there's always someone about' and another 'there's a nice lot of staff'.

We observed staff supported people in an appropriate manner. Care workers helped people to take their medication when they needed assistance. Care workers followed the provider's policy on administering medicines. Medicines were stored safely. Medicines administration records were fully completed.

We saw the home had made many improvements in record-keeping. What people described, what we observed and staff told us about was fully documented in people's records. Staff told us the revised records supported them in giving care, for example where people were prescribed a range of different topical creams.

We observed care workers helped people appropriately, including people who had dementia and disability needs. The home stored medicines safely and made accurate records of the medicines they gave to people. Care workers supported frail people in the way they needed when they gave them their medication.

The home did not always ensure all medications were secured in accordance with their own policies and procedures. Records relating to medicines which were prescribed and administered by care workers on an 'as required' basis did not follow the provider's own medicines policy.

Records of care and treatment did not show care was being given in accordance with people's care plans. Some relevant information about people was not documented and other information was not recorded accurately to show people were having the care and treatment they needed.