Highbury Nursing Home

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – this means we looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture.

At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to good.

This meant the service was consistently managed and well-led. Leaders and the culture they created promoted high-quality, person-centred care.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider had a shared vision, strategy and culture. This was based on transparency, equity, equality and human rights, diversity and inclusion, engagement, and understanding challenges and the needs of people.

The culture of the service was person-centred. Staff and leaders shared a vision of openness, honesty and continuous improvement. For example, the quality checks the registered manager conducted had a focus on learning and improvement. This supported the teams focus on trying to improve outcomes for people and reduce risks to their health and wellbeing.

The provider had inclusive leaders who understood the context in which they delivered care, treatment and support and embodied the culture and values of their workforce and organisation. Leaders had the skills, knowledge, experience and credibility to lead effectively. They did so with integrity, openness and honesty.

Staff told us they could always speak to the registered manager and provider if they had any concerns or needed support. They spoke positively about the support they received from the registered manager and the provider. Carers also told us they got a lot of support from the nursing team.

The registered manager and provider spoke very positively about the contributions of the care staff and nursing team. They told us how proud they were of all that the team had achieved and how hard they had worked.

People we spoke with told us they knew the manager and could speak to them if they needed to. Amongst the relatives we spoke with there was some confusion between who was the manager and the provider, but all had had contact with the management team.

The provider fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard.

People we spoke with told us they felt confident to raise concerns if they had any. Staff told us they felt confident to share concerns and ideas about how to improve people’s care. Systems were in place to seek feedback from staff, people living at the home and their relatives, both formally and informally. Meetings were held to give staff, people and their loved ones the opportunities to share ideas and express concerns. Complaints were investigated by the registered manager in line with the policies and procedures of the service.

The provider valued diversity in their workforce. They worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who worked for them.

Staff told us the provider had invested a lot in training to help them feel confident and capable in their roles. None of the staff we spoke with had any concerns about unfair or unequal treatment. The staff team was representative of the people using the service and the local community.

The provider had clear responsibilities, roles, systems of accountability and good governance. They used these to manage and deliver good quality, sustainable care, treatment and support. They acted on the best information about risk, performance and outcomes, and shared this securely with others when appropriate.

We saw significant improvement in the systems in place to monitor the safety and the quality of the care provided to people. The management team had developed a system of quality checks. These were conducted regularly and any problems or concerns they identified were addressed and fed into an overall service improvement plan. The service improvement plan served as a log to demonstrate what issues had been identified and how they had been addressed. It also included steps to ensure that solutions were effective over time. The registered manager and provider told us this system had given them the framework they needed to build robust governance and ensure care was safe and effective.

The provider understood their duty to collaborate and work in partnership, so services worked seamlessly for people. They shared information and learning with partners and collaborated for improvement.

People were supported to receive care from a variety of health care professionals and services. These included the Speech and Language (SALT) team, occupational health, a chiropodist, the local GP surgery and pharmacy as well as the tissue viability nursing team.

Professionals we spoke with who worked alongside the service spoke positively about the communication and responsiveness of the team.

The provider focused on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation and local system. They encouraged creative ways of delivering equality of experience, outcome and quality of life for people.

We saw continuous learning opportunities were built into many of the systems in place to monitor the safety and quality of care provided. We also saw that people, their loved ones and the staff team were given opportunities to share concerns and make suggestions. We saw meeting minutes in which lessons learned were shared with and discussed by staff teams. We saw evidence of spot checks and competency checks to ensure learning opportunities provided were effective and meaningful.