We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, 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 team consisted of an inspector 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 expert by experience’s area of expertise was the care of older people.

Service and service type:

Highfields Care Home 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.

Notice of inspection:

This inspection was unannounced and took place on 27 February 2019.

What we did:

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. The provider returned the PIR and we took this into account when we made judgements in this report.

We reviewed other information that we held about the service such as notifications. These are events that happen in the service that the provider is required to tell us about. We also considered the last inspection report and information that had been sent to us by other agencies.

During the inspection we spoke with eight people using this service and five relatives. We observed staff interacting with people, providing care and activities. We also spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager, receptionist, a nurse, a senior care worker, a care worker, and an activities co-ordinator.

We looked at two people’s care records. We also looked at other records relating to the management of the service including staffing, quality assurance, and accidents/incidents.