Pine Tree Court Care Home

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – this means we looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture.

At our last assessment we rated this key question Requires Improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to Good.

Good: This meant the service was consistently managed and well-led. Leaders and the culture they created promoted high-quality, person-centred care.

This service scored 68 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider had a shared vision, strategy and culture. This was based on transparency, equity, equality and human rights, diversity and inclusion, engagement, and understanding challenges and the needs of people and their communities.

The managers were very engaged in promoting a positive experience for people living at the service and had made significant improvements in leadership and oversight. They had recently implemented a new activity co-ordinator and were planning on starting a key worker system. One of the new managers told us, “We will match the agency staff with people they have worked with before. Most of our staff are long-standing. Staff have been here 6-10 years. We've just introduced the key worker system. We personalised key workers to people.” However, some staff were not working in line with the organisational ethos and were focussed more on providing task-based care, rather than identifying ways to support people with distressed behaviours in a person-centred and compassionate way.

The provider had inclusive leaders at all levels who understood the context in which they delivered care, treatment and support and embodied the culture and values of their workforce and organisation. Leaders had the skills, knowledge, experience and credibility to lead effectively. They did so with integrity, openness and honesty.

At the time of our inspection, 2 new managers had started in their roles, having worked within the service previously for many years. There were no registered managers at the time of the inspection. We found the managers to be knowledgeable, involved and excited to implement meaningful changes to the service. The managers were aware of the recent issues, why they had occurred and had robust plans to improve systems and processes. The managers were very receptive to feedback and to reviewing best practice guidance, such as ‘Right support, right care, right culture’, the Accessible Information Standard and sourcing additional dementia resources.

The provider fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard.

Managers were accessible, visible and kind when speaking to staff. Staff told us they trusted the managers and were confident they could approach them. Regular staff meetings and daily handovers where managers attended fostered a sense of teamwork. One staff member told us, “We work very closely with families and our nurses to ensure everyone is cared for.”

The provider valued diversity in their workforce. They worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who worked for them.

Managers promoted recognition of staff from different cultures by hosting themed activity days and meals. Managers told us it was important to them to make sure everyone felt welcome. The manager told us about past incidents where staff from different cultures needed support with communication, and this was handled in a kind and respectful way. One of the new managers told us, “We have a diverse staff base, and we try to promote diversity in the workplace. We try to facilitate when someone needs days off to do things for their religion or cultural holidays. We also like to do BBQs, and I've had these at my house which I've done when I was a senior, these are like team building. There can be a lot of negative things in other places, but I've not found that here. The staff try to work with each other to resolve differences. I feel like the team work positively together. We allow people to be themselves while also remaining individual.”

The provider had clear responsibilities, roles, systems of accountability and good governance. They used these to manage and deliver good quality, sustainable care, treatment and support. They acted on the best information about risk, performance and outcomes, and shared this securely with others when appropriate.

The provider had auditing systems in place however, the provider needs to introduce a safeguarding audit as the auditing systems in place did not pick up the concerns found during the inspection. The provider had sufficient policies and procedures which were accessible to staff. There was a management structure in place and improvements in oversight had been made following concerns over the summer months around safeguarding, referrals to the local authority and notifying CQC of incidents. However, managers were unaware of legal guidance for supporting people with a learning disability, right support, right care, right culture, and were not providing training in learning disabilities, which was a breach of regulation.

The provider did not always understand their duty to collaborate and work in partnership, so services worked seamlessly for people. They did not always share information and learning with partners or collaborate for improvement.

At the time of our inspection, there had been no attempts made to engage the local community or support people to access local areas, such as parks, shops and recreation areas. The managers told us of contacts they were making with the local pub to facilitate people going for a pub lunch; however, these had not been implemented at the time of the on-site inspection, but we received assurances they were implemented afterwards. The service was isolated from their community and people had been prevented from safely accessing their local area.

The provider focused on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation and local system. They encouraged creative ways of delivering equality of experience, outcome and quality of life for people. They actively contributed to safe, effective practice and research.

The provider acknowledged shortfalls in reporting safeguarding concerns had occurred over the summer, resulting in people being harmed. The provider had improved their systems, oversight and internal structure to ensure a similar situation did not reoccur. At the time of our inspection, the service had not had time to embed their new practices, however we could see the provider was committed to making and embedding improvements in safety.