We carried out a review of the data available to us about Sandringham Care Home on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Sandringham Care Home, you can give feedback on this service.
Sandringham Care Home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to up to 92 people. At the time of our inspection there were 88 people using the service. The service supports a range of people including older people and people living with a dementia. People are supported in a specially adapted building across 3 floors.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Medicines were managed safely, and people received their medicines as prescribed. Some medicine records and processes were not always robust, and we have made a recommendation about this. People were kept safe and protected from the risk of abuse. Risks to people were assessed, monitored and managed. Staff were knowledgeable about people’s needs. The environment was safe, and health and safety checks were up to date. The service was clean, and staff had access to appropriate PPE. There were enough staff to safely support people and staff were recruited safely.
The service was well-led and there was a positive and person-centred culture. There were clear governance and quality assurance systems in place. Regular audits were carried out and the registered manager and provider understood their regulatory requirements. Some medicine issues had not been identified within the audits, but the registered manager responded immediately to our feedback. People and their relatives were regularly involved, and their feedback sought. The management team was approachable. The registered manager was pro-active and committed to working with other professionals and developing positive and innovative ways of working.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 13 March 2020).
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part by notification of an incident following which a person using the service died. This incident is subject to further investigation by CQC as to whether any regulatory action should be taken. As a result, this inspection did not examine the circumstances of the incident. However, the information shared with CQC about the incident indicated potential concerns about the management of risk. We also received concerns around the management of falls and the general standard of care provided. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
During the inspection we found no evidence people were at risk of harm from these concerns.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Sandringham Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Recommendations
We have made a recommendation around the record keeping for medicines and ensuring medicines systems and processes are fully robust.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
Sandringham Care Home is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal and nursing care to 91 people at the time of the inspection. Sandringham Care Home accommodates up to 92 people.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People and their relatives told us they were happy with the care and support they received. They spoke highly of the staff team and of the activities that were available to them.
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Staff were trained, and the registered manager sought new training to reflect people’s needs. Staff were recruited safely. People and staff spoke positively about the registered manager.
We received very positive feedback from people and their relatives regarding the range of activities available to people in the home to protect them from social isolation and keep them engaged. People were supported to have enough to eat and drink and have an enjoyable dining experience.
People had care plans in place and these were written in a person-centred way that included life history, likes and dislikes. Medicines were managed well, administered and recorded accurately keeping people safe. People who received ‘when required’ medicines had clear instructions in place. Individualised risk assessments were in place. Staff were confident to raise concerns appropriately to safeguard people.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Appropriate healthcare professionals were included in people’s care and support, as and when this was needed. We received positive feedback from visiting professionals during our inspection.
There were systems in place for communicating with staff, people and their relatives to ensure they were fully informed via meetings and communications. People had good links to the local community through regular access to local services.
People were supported to be independent where they could, their rights were respected and access to advocacy was available.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 1 August 2017).
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.
We last inspected the service on 8 November 2016 and rated the service as good for the Safe and Well-led domains. This was a focussed inspection in response to information received by CQC. We also carried out a comprehensive inspection in February 2015 and rated the service as good overall. At this inspection we found the service remained good and met all the fundamental standards we inspected against.
Sandringham Care Home is registered to accommodate up to 92 people. It offers personal care and support to people who have dementia, people who have general nursing care needs and older people who require residential care. The home is located in the town centre of Bishop Auckland.
There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager was on leave at the time of our inspection and we met with an acting manager who had been overseeing the service since April 2017.
There were safeguarding procedures in place. Staff were knowledgeable about what action they should take if abuse was suspected. The local authority safeguarding team informed us that were no current safeguarding concerns regarding the service.
The premises were clean. Checks and tests had been carried out to ensure that the premises were safe.
There were safe systems in place to receive, administer and dispose of medicines.
We found that recruitment checks were carried out to ensure that staff were suitable to work with vulnerable people.
Staffing levels were provided to meet the needs of people using the service. Some staff we spoke with stated they felt there could be more staff on duty and people generally told us they were attended to reasonably quickly. Records confirmed that training was available to ensure staff were suitably skilled. Staff were supported through an appraisal and supervision system.
The MCA provides a legal framework for making particular decisions on behalf of people who may lack the mental capacity to do so for themselves. The Act requires that as far as possible people make their own decisions and are helped to do so when needed. When they lack mental capacity to take particular decisions, any made on their behalf must be in their best interests and as least restrictive as possible. People can only be deprived of their liberty to receive care and treatment when this is in their best interests and legally authorised under the MCA. The application procedures for this in care homes and hospitals are called the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). We saw the service identified where an authorisation may be required and followed the correct procedures to apply and maintain a DoLS.
People's nutritional needs were met and they were supported to access healthcare services when required.
We observed positive interactions between staff and people who lived at the service. Staff promoted people's privacy and dignity. There were systems in place to ensure people were involved in their care and support and treatment.
Care plans were in place which detailed the care and support to be provided for people. These were reviewed regularly or when needed and were held electronically.
There was an activities coordinator employed to help meet the social needs of people. Some people told us that more activities would be appreciated; others said there were sufficient activities at the home. People were supported to access the local community.
There was a complaints procedure in place. Feedback systems were in place to obtain people’s views.
The provider was meeting the conditions of their registration. They were submitting notifications in line with legal requirements. They were displaying their previous CQC performance ratings at the service and on their website.
Sandringham Care home is a care home with nursing which is registered to provide care for up to 92 older people and young adults who may have mental health, physical disabilities and dementia needs. The home has four separate units over three floors and it adapted for people with dementia.
The home has 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 used the service told us they felt safe and well supported by staff. Staff had received training in safeguarding. We found staff understood what actions to take if they thought people were unsafe.
Appropriate systems were in place for the management of medicines so that people received their
medicines safely. Medicines were stored in a safe manner. We witnessed staff administering medicines in a safe and correct way.
The premises were clean and well maintained. We saw that equipment was in place to maintain the health and safety of people and staff, and were checked both by the service and approved contractors when required.
There was a process for managing accidents and incidents to ensure the risks of any accidents re-occurring would be reduced.
Staff employed by the registered provider had undergone a number of recruitment checks to ensure they were suitable to work in the service. This included obtaining references from previous employers to show staff employed were safe to work with vulnerable people.
Staff told us they felt well supported by the registered manager and had received support through supervision and appraisal to enable them to care for people.
Individual support plans contained risk assessments. These identified risks and described the measures and interventions to be taken to ensure people were protected from the risk of harm.
We found people who used the service and their representatives were regularly asked for their views about the service.
There were quality assurance systems in place to ensure the effective running of the service; however these were in the process of being updated to provide greater clarity to staff about their roles and responsibilities.