Archived: Herondale Kingfisher

Herondale Kingfisher is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to 67 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 79 people.

The service is split over two buildings on the same site. Herondale provides nursing and residential care to people living with dementia and Kingfisher supports people primarily with nursing care needs.

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

People received safe care. People were supported by staff who understood the action to take should they have any concerns about people’s safety. The risks associated with people’s care had been identified and plans put in place to minimise these. Staff had been recruited safely. People were supported to take their medicines safely.

People received effective care. People received support to eat and drink meals of their choosing and where required were supported to access appropriate healthcare. Staff had received training in people’s needs. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People felt well supported and cared for by staff. People had been involved in developing a plan of care based on their preferences and were involved in making choices about their care. Staff enjoyed supporting people.

People received care that was responsive to their needs. People had been involved in reviewing their care to ensure it continued to meet their needs. People participated in activities of their choosing. People and relatives felt able to raise any concerns and could be assured these would be investigated.

The service was well led. Systems were in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service. People and staff were able to feedback their views of the service. The registered manager was aware of their responsibilities for notifying the commission of specific events.

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 3 June 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.

This was the provider’s first inspection at this location since making changes to their registration with us in April 2015. At the time of our last inspection in July 2014, the home was registered as two separate locations.

Herondale Kingfisher provides accommodation for up to 79 people who require nursing and personal care for their physical and/or dementia care needs. The home is purpose built and is separated in to two different buildings; Herondale and Kingfisher. Herondale provides accommodation for people who have nursing and dementia care needs, whilst Kingfisher specialises in providing nursing care to people with general nursing care needs. At the time of our inspection, there were 69 people living at the home.

There was a registered manager in post. 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 were supported by enough members of staff, who had been recruited safely in order to meet their needs. There was a calm, relaxed and homely feel to the home and everyone we spoke with told us that staff were kind, caring, helpful and respectful.

People were protected from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm because staff received training and understood different types of abuse and knew what actions were needed to keep people safe. The provider had also ensured effective systems were in place to report and investigate any concerns raised, which included working collaboratively with external agencies and reporting these to us, as required by law.

Staff had the knowledge and skills they required to care for people safely and effectively. This included the safe management of medicines so that people received their medicines as prescribed.

People were encouraged to be as independent as possible and were treated with dignity and respect. People had access to enough food and drink in accordance with their dietary requirements and reported to enjoy the food prepared for them.

People and/or their representatives were involved in the planning and review of their care, as far as reasonably possible and were aware of the complaints policy and procedure. The provider sought feedback from people who used the service and/or their representatives, as well as from visiting professionals in order to drive improvements.

Whilst the provider had some management systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service provided to people, these were not always effective in identifying the shortfalls identified during the inspection. Record keeping, particularly around medicine administration processes, accidents, incidents and care monitoring, required improvement. Nevertheless, the registered manager was receptive to this feedback and was open and honest in their communication with us throughout the inspection process.