St Cecilia's Care Home

Updated 5 February 2019

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team: One inspector carried out this inspection on both days. An expert by experience supported the inspection on day one. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service.

Service and service type: The service is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at on this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection: Day one of the inspection was unannounced. We told the provider we would be visiting on day two.

What we did:

Before inspection: We reviewed information, we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details around incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse; and we sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used this information to plan our inspection.

During inspection: We spoke with six people who used the service and three relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with one visiting professional.

We spoke with 12 members of staff including the registered manager, deputy manager, team leaders and care workers, cook and activities worker and quality assurance manager. The provider and three representatives which included an external consultant were also spoken to during the inspection

We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and three to review staff supervision records. Multiple records relating to the management of the service and a variety of policies and procedures developed and implemented by the provider were considered during and after the inspection.

Updated 5 February 2019

Rating at last inspection: Good (Published 26 April 2016).

About the service: St Cecilia’s Care Home is a residential care home that can provide personal care for up to 21 people aged 65 and over, some of who may be living with dementia. 21 people lived in the service when we inspected

Why we inspected: This inspection was a scheduled inspection based on the previous rating.

People’s experience of using this service:

Staff had basic knowledge to know how to keep people safe. Work to improve assessment of risk was needed to further develop staff knowledge. We made a recommendation about this. Lots of checks were completed to ensure people were safe and that their experience was positive. All actions identified were not always completed and this system needed to be reviewed. This would ensure appropriate governance was in place.

People said staff knew them very well and could anticipate their needs and that support was delivered in a timely way. People described that activities were developed around their preferences. People were supported through technology to maintain relationships and afforded support to develop and build new relationships. People and their relatives described high levels of satisfaction with the service which impacted positively on their overall wellbeing.

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 were treated with respect and dignity and their independence encouraged and supported. Where people required support at the end of their life, this was carried out with compassion and dignity.

The environment supported people to have time on their own and time with other people if they chose this. The registered manager agreed that more work to help people living with dementia to navigate their way in the service would be beneficial. Cleanliness and health and safety were well managed.

Staff had appropriate skills and knowledge to deliver care and support in a person-centred way. Staff recruitment was safe. The registered manager used information following accidents and incidents to reduce the likelihood of future harm.

The registered manager and management team were well respected. They supported the team to deliver high quality person centred care. People, their relatives and staff all felt confident raising concerns and ideas. All feedback was used to continuously improve the service.

A full description of our findings can be found in the sections below.

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