• Care Home
  • Care home

Archived: Derwent House

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

206-208 Lightwood Road, Longton, Stoke On Trent, Staffordshire, ST3 4JZ (01782) 599844

Provided and run by:
Mr & Mrs A J Bradshaw

Latest inspection summary

On this page

Background to this inspection

Updated 21 December 2019

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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector, an assistant inspector and a specialist advisor. The specialist advisor had specialist knowledge of learning disabilities.

Service and service type

Derwent House 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 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. The registered manager was unavailable at the time of the inspection and we spoke with the acting manager at the time of the inspection.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We reviewed the information we held about the service. This included notifications about events that had happened at the service, which the provider was required to send us by law. For example, safeguarding concerns, serious injuries and deaths that had occurred at the service. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with six people who used the service and two relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with five members of staff including the provider, the registered manager, the deputy, senior care workers and care workers.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care records, daily records and multiple medication records. We looked at one staff file in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. We also looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including quality audits, incidents and safeguarding.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the registered manager to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and analysis of accidents and incidents.

Overall inspection

Requires improvement

Updated 21 December 2019

About the service

Derwent House is a residential care home providing personal care for people who have a learning disability.

The service was a large home, bigger than most domestic style properties. It was registered for the support of up to 15 people but only 12 people were being supported at the time of our inspection. This is larger than current best practice guidance detailed in Registering the Right Support. The provider had started to work towards meeting best practice guidance and staff were encouraging people to be more independent and more involved in the service.

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

The provider’s legal entity was registered with us as a partnership and remained inappropriate at this inspection due to concerns that had been raised about the partnership. Action still needed to be followed to ensure the new company registration continued. The oversight of the service needed improving to ensure areas of concern and areas to improve were identified and acted upon.

Staff required further training to ensure their knowledge was fully effective at ensuring people received the best support possible. People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and although staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not always support ensuring decisions made were in people’s best interest.

Medicines management required improving to ensure people had access to effective medicines and staff had sufficient guidance to know when to administer medicines. Staff understood their safeguarding responsibilities. People had risks to their health and well-being assessed and planned for. People were protected from the risk of cross infection and improvements were still being made. People were supported by enough safely recruited staff.

No one was receiving end of life care, we made a recommendation about ensuring people’s end of life preferences were planned for. No complaints had been received but the registered manager was aware of their responsibilities. We made a recommendation to ensure the complaints procedure on display was correct. People were supported in line with their communication needs. People had care plans in place which explored their preferences about how they liked to be supported. Activities were available for people to partake in.

The service applied the principles and values of Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These ensure that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes that include control, choice and independence.

The outcomes for people using the service had started to reflect the principles and values of Registering the Right Support by promoting choice and control, independence and inclusion. People's support focused on them having opportunities for them to gain new skills and become more independent.

People were involved in meal planning and could access food and drinks of their choice when they wanted them. People were supported to access other health professionals and were encouraged to remain healthy and had their needs assessed.

People were treated with kindness and respect by a caring staff team. People had their independence promoted and were encouraged to partake in decisions about their care.

People and staff felt positively about the registered manager and felt supported in their role.

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 11 July 2019) and there were multiple breaches of regulation; and was rated inadequate in well-led. At this inspection the service had made some improvements and there was one remaining breach of regulation. The service remains rated requires improvement.

This service has been in Special Measures since 06 November 2018. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

This inspection was planned to follow up on the concerns at the last inspection in line with our ‘special measures’ procedures. We needed to check that people were supported safely and whether the provider was meeting the Regulations.

We found improvements had been made. However, there were still improvements needed to ensure people received good support in relation to all key questions. We rated the key questions of safe, effective and well led as requires improvement. The overall rating is requires improvement.

Enforcement

We have identified a breach in relation to ensuring directors are fit and proper persons at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

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.