Holmhurst Care Home

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment, and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence. This is the first assessment for this newly registered service. This key question has been rated good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing, and communication needs with them. Staff understood people’s individual needs and made sure assessments were up to date and recorded.

People participated in their assessments and reviews. People had communication care plans in place and documents to take to hospital with them when required.

Staff and those who knew people well were also involved in people’s assessments to ensure their views and opinions were captured. Staff told us people’s views were sought during daily support and in meetings with them.

The service planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

Staff monitored people’s weight if required and used nationally recognised tools appropriately to assess and monitor people’s needs. For example, Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) and a clinical tool used to evaluate a person’s risk of developing a pressure ulcer (Waterlow assessment) were undertaken. There was a falls protocol in place which guided staff on how to support and monitor people if they had a fall.

Staff ensured people had enough to eat and drink and where there was a concern in this area, staff had put safeguards in place to help people manage these.

The service worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services. The staff team worked together with a variety of health and social care professionals to ensure care and support was received when required. The provider had processes in place to ensure care and support was coordinated in the best interests of people using the service which included collaboration with professionals and information sharing.

The registered manager gave us several examples of other health professionals they worked in collaboration with.

The service supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice, and control. The service supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support.

Care records captured the support people required with their health needs and what action staff should take when there was any deterioration to an individual’s health. A staff member told us, “We work with the mental health team, social workers, GP, and families. It works well and we follow the advice given by professionals.”

The service routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they mostly met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves.

People were engaged to ensure they were able to make choices about their lives. Staff worked collaboratively to plan and deliver people’s care, reduce risks, and achieve best outcomes for people.

The registered manager told us, “We have a care plan in place which we review every 6 months or sooner if something changes. We audit daily notes the next day. We review daily logs of what people have eaten, bowel movements and personal care. We do spot checks including night spot checks, we walk around the home, we observe interactions, and I talk to people and ask how their experience has been that day. We check in with staff about how people who have newly moved in are doing.”

The service told people about their rights around consent and respected their rights when delivering care and treatment. Where necessary, mental capacity assessments were completed in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA).

Staff understood the importance of asking for consent prior to providing care and support. They told us they always sought consent from people and explained what they needed to do to support the individual safely. We observed staff gaining people’s consent throughout our on-site inspection visits.