The Old Vicarage Care Home

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence.At our last inspection we rated this key question good. At this inspection the rating has remained good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 62 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

Staff did not always make sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.Care plans did not all accurately reflect people’s current needs. Care plans such as for oral care, personal care, mobility, sensory needs, distress and agitation all required more information that detailed how a person wanted and needed to be supported, to ensure people’s safety and that they received person-centred care. Staff told us communication was effective and kept them up to date about people’s changing needs.This included handover meetings between incoming and outgoing staff on shift and staff meetings.

Staff at the service planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards. There was effective recording and monitoring of people’s nutritional and fluid intake, with specialist advice obtained in a timely way, including for modified diets. Communication took place with catering staff so they were informed daily of any changes in people’s nutrition and where they may be at risk of weight loss. There had been recent changes to the menus and people received a varied diet. Their comments included, “The food is very good, I like it anyway” and “The food is quite good.”

Improvements were being made to the environment. We discussed with the manager to ensure the environment is appropriately designed to meet the needs of people who may live with dementia or a dementia related condition to keep them orientated and maintain their independence. The manager told us this would be addressed after the inspection

Staff at the service worked well across teams and services to support people. Staff made timely referrals and worked well with other agencies to ensure people's treatment needs were met. The home had a weekly meeting with the local GP practice, and a fortnightly visit from the community matron had just been introduced, where people’s health and well-being was reviewed.

The provider had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. They listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. However, some improvements were needed where people may be at risk of harm when eating. Lessons were learnt to continually identify and embed good practice. Any incidents about people's safety were discussed with staff in a timely way, with action taken to mitigate further risks. A relative commented, “[Name] is looked after, they had falls early on but not recently, staff keep an eye on [Name].”

Staff at the service routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves.However, care plans were not all personalised to ensure outcomes could be met for each person and to ensure they received safe and effective support. There was a system of evaluation of risk assessments and people's care plans.

Staff told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment. Assessments were carried out, around people’s mental capacity and care records contained relevant information.