The inspection took place on 7 and 8 January 2015 and was unannounced.
At the last inspection on 16 August 2013 the provider was meeting all of the regulations.
Jason Hylton Court provides accommodation and nursing care for up to 37 people with health conditions and physical needs. On the day of our visit there were 34 people living at the home. Accommodation is arranged over three floors and there is a passenger lift to assist people to get to the upper floors.
The service had a registered manager. .A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
People who we spoke with were happy with the care and support they were receiving. They told us that staff did respond to their needs but they frequently had to wait for assistance. People were provided with choices about their care and support and how they spent their time. Staff felt well supported in their roles.
We found that the environment at the service varied considerably on different floors of the service. The ground floor was quite lively and busy during the daytime whilst the first and second floors were very quiet. Although this suited some people, we had concerns about the deployment of staff throughout the floors of the building, as some people were unable to summons assistance when they needed it.
Staff recruitment procedures were robust and ensured that appropriate checks were carried out before staff started work. Staff received an induction and on-going training to ensure they had up to date knowledge and skills to provide the right support for people. However their knowledge relating to individual’s care needs varied and was inconsistent.
We spoke with staff about the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). This is legislation that protects people who lack mental capacity to make decisions about their care and support, and protects them from unlawful restrictions of their freedom and liberty. Staff’s knowledge and understanding of MCA and DoLS varied but we saw that the legislation had been used appropriately. We spoke with the manager in relation about the recent case law relating to DoLS. The manager advised us that they had been in touch with the local authority following the case law and that they were going to start to reviewing people’s needs.
People were involved in decisions about what they had to eat and drink. People were supported to access relevant health professionals as they required. Mental Capacity Assessments had been completed appropriately and where best interest decisions had been made they were appropriately documented. Where people had the capacity to consent to their care and treatment there was evidence that their consent had been obtained.
People told us that staff were caring, however, we observed that staff did not always communicate with people in a caring way. People had care plans in place but these contained very little information about people’s personal preferences and had not always been updated when changes had taken place. Changes had not always been communicated effectively with the staff team which led to inconsistencies in people’s understanding.
We found two breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.
You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.