Firs Residential Home

Updated 24 November 2020

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of coronavirus, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control practice was safe and the service was compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place.

This inspection took place on 6 November 2020 and was announced.

Updated 24 November 2020

Firs Residential Home is a 'care home.' People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. The care home can accommodate up to 33 older people and older people living with dementia in one purpose-built building. Accommodation is provided over one level. At the time of this inspection there were 22 people living at the home.

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

People were protected from harm and abuse as the staff team had been trained to recognise potential signs of abuse and understood what to do. People had information on how to raise concerns and were confident any issues would be addressed correctly.

It was clear from the findings at this inspection, the quality of the service people received had improved. Due to the many changes of manager since the last inspection, we were unable to evidence these improvements were truly embedded and standards of care delivery were consistently maintained. Future inspection will seek to evidence a sustained and consistent high level of quality has been achieved and that systems of governance are reflective, transparent and robust.

In the main medicine administration systems were effective. However, we found a gap in the medicine administration record that was not picked up by other staff or the audit process. The manager took immediate action to prevent this happening again. Recruitment processes were of good quality. The manager was in the process of gaining from staff information about any physical or mental health conditions which were relevant to the person’s capability to do the job. Enough staff were employed to meet people’s individual needs. New staff received an induction. Staff received training and supervision which was up to date. The home was clean and tidy with no unpleasant odours. Further work to improve the decoration of the home was needed.

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. People received help and support from a kind and compassionate staff team with whom they had developed positive relationships. People were supported by staff members who were aware of their individual protected characteristics like age, gender, disability and religion. People were provided with information in a way they could understand.

People’s care plans needed further work to ensure they were fully up to date, and person centred. The provider had systems in place to encourage and respond to any complaints or compliments from people or those close to them. A minimal number of activities were available to people. Further work was required to ensure these were available more often and were person-centred and meaningful to people. We have made a recommendation about the development of activity provision in the home.

People were supported by a team of staff who were happy in their jobs and well-supported by their managers. An experienced manager and senior staff completed a range of regular checks on the quality and safety of the service. The provider, manager and staff all demonstrated a desire to improve the quality of care provided. People, relatives, staff and visiting professionals had regular opportunities to express their views about the service.

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 25 October 2018) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations. The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last two consecutive inspections.

NOTE: We will describe what we will do about the repeat requires improvement in the follow up section below.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.

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

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.