Laxton Hall is a residential care home for up to 30 older people and people living with dementia. At the time of inspection there were 27 people living at the home. Laxton Hall is a care home for older Polish people. The home is a 17th Century Grade II-listed building, situated between Laxton and Corby in Northamptonshire. It has been converted into a residential care home whilst keeping the integrity of the original architecture intact. It is set in 97 acres of land and gardens. It is staffed by the Polish Sisters of Mary Immaculate and Polish care staff. This Polish community provides for the religious, cultural and the physical needs of people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People and family members spoke highly of the staff who supported them. They spoke of staff understanding their individual needs and wishes and of being happy at the home. There was a strong sense of community. One person said, “I would recommend this home to other Polish people because they [staff] follow the Polish culture.”
We observed staff and people at the home enjoying each other’s company, we heard much conversation and laughter. A family member said, “Laxton Hall is a fantastic home. The staff seem to love the people here, it’s seamless care and support, the staff do great activities to stimulate people, picnics, spiritual talks. They really embrace the polish culture.”
Systems and processes were in place to support people’s safety. People’s needs, including their safety in relation to care were assessed and monitored. Timely referrals were made to health care professionals where required to promote people’s safety and well-being.
Protocols and procedures were in place to ensure medicines were safely managed and administered by staff that had received training and had their competency to administer medicines assessed.
People were supported by staff that had full recruitment checks. The staff were committed to providing timely care that was person-centred. People and their family members spoke of the staff’s kind and caring approach. At the time of the inspection the provider was actively seeking to recruit more Polish speaking staff to increase the staffing levels.
Staff worked consistently within the providers policy and procedure for infection prevention and control and followed current government guidance related to COVID-19.
People’s views, and that of family members were sought, which included involvement in decisions relating to people’s care.
People, family members and staff spoke of the registered manager having an open-door policy. Staff were enthusiastic about their role, and of their commitment to continually improve people’s care. Quality monitoring was undertaken on all aspects of the service and kept under review by the registered manager to drive improvement.
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 and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 20 December 2019) and there was breaches of regulation. At this inspection we found enough improvement had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of the regulations.
Why we inspected
We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service in September 2019 and breaches of legal requirements were found under Regulation 12 Safe Care and Treatment and Regulation 17 Good Governance of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
The registered manager completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met the legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions, safe and well-led which contain those requirements.
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 changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
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.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Laxton Hall 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.