Godswell Park

Godswell Park is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to 36 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 48 people.

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

People continued to receive outstanding care from consistent knowledgeable staff that exceeded their expectations. The service continued to embraced technology to promote people's freedom and minimise risks. The provider had maintained an excellent overview of risk and safety to inform action and business plans. They had sustained the services of an independent health and safety consultancy to ensure they were compliant with all current health and safety law.

The service had maintained exceptional staffing levels that met people’s needs and kept them safe. There was a significantly high ratio of staff and very low turnover which helped ensure staff had an excellent understanding of people's needs and personalities. The service never used agency staff. The service had an exceptional and inclusive approach to promoting the safety of its staff and was seen as a good place to work by staff and external organisations.

The provider continued to go above and beyond to explore innovation and ensure excellent infection control measures were in place. For example, the provider had maintained their state-of-the-art air purifier system which delivered pressurised and filtered air to each floor. This allowed constant air flow in and out of the building therefore reducing the risk of allergens such as dust and pollen. We saw the environment was very clean and smelt fresh. The service also sustained their ozone laundry delivery system which ensured people’s washing was completely infection free.

The service had sustained a genuinely open culture in which all safety concerns raised were highly valued as integral to learning and improvement. Safety alerts, results of investigations and analysis of events were communicated at staff meetings. Opportunities to learn from external safety events were identified.

The provider had gone to extra lengths to continuously assess and review people’s care provision when they first came in. They had introduced a ‘new resident welcome pack’ which allowed instant ongoing review of care from the person’s perspective and identified any lessons to be learnt.

People remained very well cared for by highly skilled staff who had an in-depth understanding how to support people with different needs. Since the last inspection, people using the service and their families had been supported to take part in the recruitment of staff and volunteers and had an influence on the outcome. Meal times at Godswell Park were considered social events and people continued to experience an outstanding dining experience. The service maintained a strong emphasis on the importance of eating and drinking well. People continued to benefit from the extensive, attractively landscaped grounds with a huge variety of plants and flowers. People experienced positive outcomes regarding their health and wellbeing. The home had excellent systems and processes for referring people to external services. These were applied consistently and had a clear strategy to maintain continuity of care and support.

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 were supported to maintain good health and to meet their nutritional needs.

People continued to receive outstanding care from highly motivated staff. Godswell Park had a strong and visible person-centred culture which ensured that staff in all roles were highly motivated and offered outstanding care and support that was exceptionally compassionate and kind. The home’s philosophy of high-quality care made care and compassion every staff member’s business.

Respect for privacy and dignity remained at the heart of the service’s culture and values. It was embedded in everything that the service and its staff did. People and staff felt respected, listened to, and influential. Godswell Park’s philosophy continued to be around ensuring people maintained independence. There was an exceptional, inclusive approach to care that valued people and relatives and made them partners in care provision.

Arrangements for social activities continued to meet people’s individual needs and followed best practice guidance so people could live as full a life as possible. The service continued to go the extra mile to find out what people had done in the past and evaluated whether it could accommodate activities and made them happen. The service had maintained close working relationships with healthcare professionals and provided commendable end of life care. People experienced a comfortable, dignified and pain-free death. People continued to receive personalised care and support specific to their needs, preferences and routines. Visiting professionals told us the service was focused on providing person-centred care and support and achieved exceptional results.

The provider’s vision and values continued to put people at the heart of the service. These were centred around provision of a high-quality service to people. The values were developed with people and staff in meaningful and creative ways and were owned by everyone. People and staff ran the service and had clear control of how the care was delivered. The registered manager provided exceptional leadership and had developed a dedicated staff team who were committed to the vision and values of the service. Staff were motivated by and proud of the service. They loved being part of dedicated team and vowed to provide excellent care.

The stable leadership at the service continued to be exceptional. The registered manager was supported by three hands on directors. They were all passionate about their roles and had a clear vision to keep improving the quality of the service. Godswell Park had a track record of being an excellent role model for other services. It worked in partnership with others to build seamless experiences for people based on good practice and people’s informed preferences. The service continued to be an important part of its community and had maintained and further developed community links to reflect people’s needs and preferences.

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was outstanding (published 26 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.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

This inspection visit to Godswell Park took place on 20 July 2017 and was unannounced. During the inspection, we found the provider had thoughtfully designed the building, developed an ethos of strong values to enhance person centred care and deployed cohesive staff teams in an exceptional manner. We corroborated this when we toured the building and talked with people and relatives.

There was a registered manager in place. 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.

Godswell Park had high quality premises with a hotel-type atmosphere. The environment was clean, beautifully decorated and had stunning, well-kept and accessible gardens. There was a tranquil, warm and welcoming atmosphere throughout. We saw that people were relaxed and staff demonstrated an exceptionally caring attitude.

Food was of an outstanding standard. This included sourcing local fresh ingredients through to producing and presenting high quality food of a restaurant standard. When we discussed the quality of meals with people and their relatives, they said food was of a very high quality and we observed this during the inspection.

We found people, relatives and staff were at the heart of Godswell Park’s quality assurance programme. The management team had a wide range of systems to gain their feedback. This included multiple meetings and a variety of satisfaction questionnaires. People, relatives and staff, told us the home was highly organised and exceptionally well-led.

The provider and registered manager regularly completed multiple auditing systems and acted swiftly to address any identified issues. They had remarkable oversight of care provision, service quality and everyone's safety.

Staff worked within a highly trained team and had ample time to support individuals in a meaningful way. This was because very high staff numbers and skills mixes were deployed to provide a holistic approach to care and people's safety.

We found care records contained detailed and personalised care plans. We observed staff followed these in their extremely safe and caring approach to people's related support.

Staff followed the Code of Practice in relation to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and associated Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). We observed staff treated people as equals and individuals, offering them options whenever they engaged with them. Staff always endeavoured to enable people to maintain their independence and to make their own decisions.

Relatives told us they felt extremely well supported and encouraged to maintain their important relationships with their loved ones that lived at Godswell Park. They said the management team were excellent at keeping them informed about people's care. People and their representatives said staff worked collaboratively with them to ensure they received high standards of care.

We saw staff were responsive to each person's changing needs and adopted a revised care planning method to improve upon the support people required. We found care planning enabled staff to work in a highly personalised and holistic approach. A professional said they had found Godswell Park a wonderful home and would rate it as outstanding in all areas.

People benefited from a large range of activities and interests provided, to ensure they were kept occupied if they chose. There were many excellent opportunities to optimise people's social and stimulation requirements.