• Care Home
  • Care home

Valley Lodge Care Home

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

3 & 5 Valley Road, Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, Hampshire, SO53 1GQ (023) 8025 4034

Provided and run by:
Camellia Care (Chandler's Ford) Ltd

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 22 October 2020

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.

Service and service type

Valley Lodge Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a 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.

Notice of inspection

We gave the provider 18 hours’ notice of the inspection.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with two people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with eight members of staff including the provider, registered manager, assistant manager, senior care worker, care workers and a housekeeper.

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records. We emailed feedback requests to relatives of people using the service, staff members and health and social care professionals. We received six responses from staff, nine from relatives and four from health and social care professionals.

Overall inspection

Requires improvement

Updated 22 October 2020

Valley Lodge Care Home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to 26 people at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 47 people.

The care home is an adapted and extended property which has recently been zoned to provide two main accommodation areas, each with access to an outside space. There are also two separate isolation areas.

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

People were not always safe. We found there were improvements needed to water hygiene risk management.

People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always support them in the least restrictive ways possible, or in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice. This was a continued area of concern from the last inspection.

We made a recommendation about medicines as we were concerned at how they were being managed.

Risks associated with people and the environment were thoroughly assessed and there were extensive security measures including key pad entry systems and extensive CCTV coverage.

Staff were safely recruited and most people’s feedback told us there were sufficient staff deployed.

Infection prevention and control was very good and the home had been adapted to facilitate safe management of infection should there be cases of Covid-19.

Staff had a working knowledge of the MCA and ensured people were offered choices.

Assessments are care plans were completed and care plans were displayed on the e-care system so staff could refresh themselves each time they undertook a care task.

Staff had received both formal and informal supervision, particularly during the pandemic. There had also been counselling provided should staff wish to participate.

Face to face staff training had been temporarily suspended during the pandemic. Alternatives such as workbooks and online learning had replaced some courses to ensure staff maintained their knowledge.

Most relatives were happy with the dietary and fluid support provided however we had one specific concern that a family member had lost significant weight and this had not been properly dealt with.

Healthcare professionals were available as required. Additional safety measures such as using full PPE were in place to facilitate their access to the service.

The service was well designed and had specific areas designed for reminiscence to enhance the lives of people living with dementia.

People were supported to live fulfilling lives.

The provider was aware of their responsibilities under the duty of candour. Relatives felt that communication could be improved.

The nominated individual was very supportive to the registered manager and there was a management team in place who oversaw particular areas of the service. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

Care staff told us that support from the management team was good and they were approachable.

We received mixed feedback from health and social care professionals about how engaged the provider was with them.

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 5 January 2019). The service remains rated requires improvement.

At our last inspection, the provider was in breach of Regulation 11 of the Health and Social Care Act, Regulated Activities Regulations 2014, need for consent. At this inspection we found, although some improvements had been made, there were almost half of the inspected consent documents either not signed by someone with legal authority to do so or not signed. Not enough improvement had been made or sustained and the provider was still in breach of regulations. We found that the provider was also in breach of Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act, Regulated Activities Regulations 2014, safe care and treatment.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced, comprehensive inspection of this service on 23 October 2018. A breach of legal requirements was found. We undertook this focused inspection to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Effective and Well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has remained requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Valley Lodge on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.

We have identified breaches in relation to Regulation 12, safe care and treatment as the provider did not have a suitable water hygiene risk assessment, and a continuing breach of Regulation 11, the need for consent. This related to consents obtained for use of CCTV and photographs.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan for the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.