Updated 20 July 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 was planned to check 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:
The inspection visit was carried out by one inspector, a specialist advisor and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. Our specialist advisor was a nurse with experience in dementia care. The second day of our inspection was carried out by one inspector.
Notice of inspection:
The first day was unannounced. This was a comprehensive inspection and took place on 15 and 20 May 2019.
What we did:
Our inspection was informed by evidence we already held about the service. We sought the views of Healthwatch Nottinghamshire, who are an independent organisation that represents people using health and social care services. We also sought the views of external health and social care staff, and commissioners from the local authority. Commissioners are people who work to find appropriate care and support services which are paid for by the local authority or by a health clinical commissioning group. Commissioners also undertake monitoring of the quality of services.
During the inspection visit we spoke with seven people who used the service. We spoke with nine relatives, three care staff, and three staff involved in housekeeping and administration. We spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager, the provider’s head of operations, and two directors. We also spoke with two health and social care professionals. We looked at a range of records related to how the service was managed. These included three people’s care records and how their medicines were managed. We also looked at four staff recruitment and training files, and the provider’s quality auditing system.
Not all of the people living at the service were able to fully express their views about their care. 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 asked the provider to send us a Provider Information Return (PIR), and they did. This is a form that asks the provider information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. During the inspection visit we asked the registered manager to send us additional evidence about how the service was managed, and they did this.