Florfield Home

Updated 9 January 2024

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

Service and service type

Florfield Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Florfield Home is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

The inspection was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the information we held about the service including notifications they had submitted to us. Notifications are information about events that providers are required by law to inform CQC about. We sought feedback from the Local Authority about the service.

During the inspection

We spoke with 4 members of staff including the registered manager, the deputy manager and two support workers. We used the Short Observation 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 spoke to 1 family member and attempted to make contact with another person’s advocate. We reviewed 2 people’s care files including their care plans, risk assessments and records of care. We reviewed various other documents relevant to the management of the service including audits, quality reports and improvement plans.

Updated 9 January 2024

About the service

Florfield Home is a residential care home providing accommodation for persons who require nursing or personal care to a maximum of 4 people. The service provides support to people with learning disabilities. At the time of our inspection 2 people lived at Florfield Home permanently and another was staying there for respite care.

People’s experience of the service and what we found:

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessment and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Care

Staff had not always assessed the risks people faced in their daily lives. Staff did not have access to the information they needed to ensure the safe administration of medicines. People’s needs were assessed and details of this were reflected in people’s care plans. People’s cultural needs were respected. People’s goals and aspirations were not always clearly captured and it was not always clear people had been involved in reviewing their care. No one living in the service was currently at the end of their life, but some work was required to improve planning in this area.

Right Culture

The quality assurance systems needed to be improved as they had failed to identify issues we found with the premises, medicines plans and risk assessments. The staff had developed an extremely caring culture which valued the people they supported highly. People clearly trusted their staff. Staff worked well with external agencies and health professionals. Processes were in place to safeguard people from abuse.

Right Support

People were supported by a big enough staff team who had been recruited in a safe way. Staff received the training they needed to perform their roles. The home was clean and tidy. People’s rooms were personalised and their sensory and physical needs were met by the layout of the premises. People were supported with their healthcare and nutrition needs. People were supported to maintain their relationships with their families, however, activities were limited.

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 3 October 2017).

Why we inspected

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

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

We have made recommendations about involving people in reviewing their care and ensuring they have access to activities that are socially and culturally meaningful to them.

Follow Up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.