• Care Home
  • Care home

Viera Gray House

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

27 Ferry Road, London, SW13 9PP (020) 8748 4563

Provided and run by:
Greensleeves Homes Trust

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 27 May 2023

The inspection

We conducted 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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was conducted by 3 inspectors.

Service and service type

Viera Gray House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Viera Gray House is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the CQC to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced. Inspection activity started on 25 April 2023 and ended on 27 April 2023. We visited the care home on the first day of the inspection.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since their last inspection. We received email feedback from 2 relatives and 5 community health and social care professionals, including local authority social workers, an NHS learning disability nurse, and an occupational therapist, who all worked closely with the provider. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke in-person with 8 people who lived at the care home and a visiting community health care professional. We also talked to various managers and staff who worked at the care home including, a learning and development manager, the director of quality and compliance/nominated individual (the nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider), a nurse, 10 care workers, 2 domestics and the maintenance person.

We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not verbally communicate with us.

We reviewed a range of records. This included 7 people’s care and risk management plans, and 6 staff files in relation to their recruitment. We also checked a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including staff recruitment checks, multiple electronic medicines records and provider level audits.

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We requested additional evidence to be sent to us after our inspection. This included staff rotas, training, and supervision records, multiple quality assurance audits conducted by the provider and stakeholder satisfaction survey feedback. We received the information which was used as part of our inspection.

Overall inspection

Requires improvement

Updated 27 May 2023

About the service

Viera Gray House is a residential ‘care home’ providing personal care and support to up to 41 people. At the time of our inspection 20 older people were living at the care home. Viera Gray House accommodates people across 4 separate wings, each of which has separate adapted facilities. 1 of the wings specialises in providing care to people living with dementia.

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

At this inspection we found enough improvement had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations in relation to the management of staffing levels, medicines, safeguarding, and distressed behaviours and governance.

People living in Viera Gray House told us they were happy with the quality of the care they received there. However, we received mixed comments from community and health and social care professionals we spoke with, although most agreed the service was beginning to improve and move in the right direction.

People were kept safe and were confident any concerns they raised would be listened to. Staff now understood how to safeguard people. People told us staff always treated them with respect and dignity.

Medicines systems were now well-organised, and people received their prescribed medicines as and when they should.

The care home was adequately staffed by people whose suitability and fitness to work there had been thoroughly assessed. Staff now had the right levels of training, support, and experience to deliver safe care to the people they supported.

People were cared for and supported by staff who knew how to manage risks they might face. People now had up to date, detailed, person-centred risk assessments and management plans in place, which were routinely assessed, monitored, and reviewed. This enabled staff to understand and meet their needs and expressed wishes and preferences.

The quality and safety of the service people received was now reviewed regularly, and appropriate changes made to improve people’s care and support if required. Complaints, concerns, accidents, incidents, and safeguarding issues were appropriately reported, investigated, and recorded.

People living at the care home and staff working there were complimentary about the way the service was managed, and how approachable the managers in-charge all were.

However, the service remains without a registered manager, which the provider is legally required to have in post to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. We discussed this management issue with the provider at the time of this inspection. A new manager was appointed in April 2023 and the provider assured us they would apply to be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) by June 2023. Progress made by the service will be closely monitored by the CQC.

The premises were kept hygienically clean and staff followed current best practice guidelines regarding the prevention and control of infection including, and those associated with COVID-19.

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.

The care home’s culture was now more positive, open, and honest, with leadership and management that was clearly identifiable and transparent.

The provider worked in close partnership with various community health and social care professionals and agencies to plan and deliver people's packages of care and support.

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

This service has been in Special Measures since 22 December 2022 when we rated them inadequate overall. During this inspection, the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions and is therefore is no longer in Special Measures.

However, despite improvements made the provider will still need to demonstrate they can continue to move in the right direction and consistently keep people safe over a more sustained period of time.

Why we inspected

We conducted an unannounced inspection of this service on 11 and 13 November 2022. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to comply with urgent imposing conditions and outstanding requirements we previously served in relation to Regulations 12 (Safe care and treatment), 13 (Safeguarding service users from abuse), 17 (Good governance), and 18 (Staffing) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

We undertook this unannounced focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe and well-led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from inadequate to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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 COVID19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

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

Follow up

We will collaborate with the provider to monitor how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.