Austen Court Care Home

Austen Court is a nursing home providing personal and nursing care for up to 69 people. The service provides support to younger and older people who may have physical disabilities, sensory impairments and/or be living with dementia. The home's purpose-built environment is situated over three floors. At the time of our inspection, there were 64 people living at the home.

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

People were not consistently protected from the risk of infections as staff did not always follow good hygiene practices in communal toilet and bathroom areas. Other areas of the home environment were clean, and staff made appropriate use of personal protective equipment to protect people from the risk of infections.

Staff did not always put their knowledge into practice as they had used inappropriate equipment to dispose of sharps items such as used needles. People received their medicines as prescribed from staff who were trained and competent to do so.

People were supported by staff that understood how to keep them safe. Staff had received training in safeguarding and knew how to identify and report concerns. There were enough staff to support people’s care and safety needs. The provider’s recruitment processes were robust ensuring only people of a suitable character were employed to work with vulnerable people. Accidents and incidents were reviewed to identify themes and the actions needed to prevent them from happening again. Lessons learnt were shared with the staff team.

People’s needs had been assessed and were recorded in detailed care plans. Deployment of staff met people’s needs. Staff were provided with appropriate training in relation to their role. Staff received supervisions and told us they felt supported. People were supported appropriately to eat and drink. People and relatives told us they were supported with their healthcare needs, records confirmed this.

Systems and processes were in place to monitor the quality and effectiveness of the service provided. This allowed the registered manager and provider to identify shortfalls and address them. The management team were responsive to the concerns we identified and took immediate action. People, relatives, and staff views were gathered through meetings and satisfaction surveys. Actions plans were developed and used to drive through 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 26 October 2021).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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 COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

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

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

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Austen Court Care Home 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.

Austen Court is a nursing home providing personal and nursing care for up to 69 people aged under and over the age of 65 who may have physical disabilities, sensory impairments and/or be living with dementia. The home’s purpose-built environment is situated over three floors. At the time of our inspection, there were 53 people living at the home.

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

People were happy with the standard of care and support they received. There were enough staff to support people's care and safety needs. The provider's staff recruitment and induction arrangements helped ensure new staff were able to support people.

Staff understood how to identify and alert others to potential abuse involving the people who lived at the home. The risks to people had been assessed and reviewed, and plans were in place designed to manage these. People received their medicines safely from trained staff.

Staff were provided with, and made use of, personal protective equipment to reduce the risk of cross-infection. Accidents and incidents involving people were monitored by the management team to learn from these and reduce risks.

Staff supported people to make their own choices and decisions in how they were supported. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Staff found the recruitment of the new manager had been a positive one with staff morale improving.

The provider had quality assurance systems and processes in place to enable them to monitor and improve the quality of people's care. Staff and management worked with a range of community health and social care professionals to achieve positive outcomes for people.

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 25 March 2020).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to staffing and management. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

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 COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the key questions of effective, caring and responsive. We therefore did not inspect these. 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 as Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

Follow up

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

Austen Court is a nursing home providing personal and nursing care for up to 69 people aged under and over the age of 65 who may have physical disabilities, sensory impairments and/or be living with dementia. The home’s purpose-built environment is situated over three floors. At the time of our inspection, there were 44 people living at the home.

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

People were supported to stay as safe as possible by staff who understood what actions to take to reduce risks to their well-being. This included reducing risks to people's physical health and mental well-being. People, their relatives and staff were confident if they had any concerns for people's safety the management team would put plans in place to help them. There were enough staff to meet people's care and safety needs.

Since our last inspection improvements had been made to the management and administration of people’s medicines. People were supported to take their medicines as prescribed to meet their health needs.

People benefited from living in a home where there were systems in place to reduce the risk of infections and staff knew what action to take to care for people if they experienced any infections. Checks on the home environment were undertaken and systems for identifying if there was any learning after safety incidents were in place.

Staff considered people's care needs and involved people who knew them well before people came to live at the home, so they could be sure they could meet people's needs. Staff had received the training they required so people would be supported by staff with the skills needed to provide care and support. People were complimentary about their home environment and how it met their needs.

People were supported to choose what they wanted to eat and to obtain care from health and social care professionals so they would remain well. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People had developed caring relationships with staff who provided support and showed us they liked the staff who cared for them. Staff communicated with people in the ways they preferred and encouraged them to make their own day to day decisions about their care. People received care from staff who acted to promote their dignity and independence.

People's care had been planned by taking their individual wishes, histories and needs into account. There were opportunities for social stimulation and people could see their friends and family whenever they wanted. Complaints were managed in line with the registered providers policy. People's end of life wishes, and preferences were recorded.

Staff were well supported and motivated. The registered manager and staff team worked in partnership with other professionals and the local community to achieve good outcomes for people.

Following the last inspection, the management team had worked together to bring about continual improvements to ensure their quality checking and monitoring practices were more effective. The management and staff team planned further work so people would benefit from living at a home where staff continued to develop their caring skills and experience.

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

Rating at last inspection (and update)

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 07 March 2019)

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.

Overall, people received their medicines safely and as prescribed. However, the provider needed to ensure safe medicines management and effective record keeping was consistently followed by all staff to mitigate risks to people’s safety and welfare.

The provider’s quality monitoring systems required strengthening. This was to ensure monitoring systems were reliable in effectively mitigating risks to people from staff not following safe and best practices when managing people’s medicines and records.

On the second day of our inspection the manager had taken action to drive through the required improvements to staff practices and to ensure quality monitoring were as strong as they could be.

People were supported to stay as safe as possible by staff who understood what actions to take if they suspected a person was at risk from abuse or harm. The provider had arrangements in place to ensure people’s needs were reviewed alongside staffing levels and the deployment of staff.

People benefited from living in a home where there were systems in place to reduce the risk of infections and staff knew what action to take to care for people if they experienced any infections. The home environment was designed to a high standard with people at the heart of all the features which included the furniture and different areas for people to enjoy. Checks on the home environment were undertaken.

Staff considered people’s care needs and involved people who knew them well before people came to live at the home, so they could be sure they could meet people’s needs. Staff had received the training they required so people would be supported by staff with the skills needed to provide care and support. Further training and accreditation was consistently sought such as, staff aiming to achieve the gold standard framework in end of life care to further enhance their practices in supporting people to live until they die.

People were supported to choose what they wanted to eat and to obtain care from health and social care professionals so they would remain well. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People had developed caring relationships with the staff who provided support and showed us they liked the staff who cared for them. Staff communicated with people in the ways they preferred and encouraged them to make their own day to day decisions about their care. People received care from staff who acted to promote their dignity and independence.

People’s care had been planned by taking their individual wishes, histories and needs into account. People’s care plans incorporated advice provided by other health and social care professionals, so they would receive the care they needed in the ways they preferred. A programme of fun and interesting things to do supported people to choose what they wanted to participate in. Systems were in place to respond to any concerns or complaints and to incorporate any learning into care subsequently provided.

The provider and management team checked people received the care they wanted, so they would be assured people enjoyed a good quality of life and risks to their safety were reduced. The views of people, their relatives and staff when developing people’s care and the home further.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.