Norton Lodge

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. At our last assessment we rated this key question requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 62 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them. All risk assessments and care plans for people had been reviewed since our last assessment to assess whether people were receiving the correct level of care they needed. Some further work was needed on the detail of these care plans, in particular the provider needed to ensure the management team was keeping this information up to date when a person’s needs was regularly changing.

The provider 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. Since our last assessment, systems to ensure people received the correct diet based upon their needs had greatly improved. Staff, including kitchen staff were knowledgeable about people’s eating and drinking needs and the risks associated with this. For example, if a person was diabetic or at risk of weight loss and required food and drinks which contained additional calories. People told us the food had improved since our last assessment. A person commented, “The food is good, I have no complaints. If I wanted something different, they would make it for me if it was available.”

The provider 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. A family member commented, “Since the new manager has started, everything has been fine.” Referrals were made for people to other health and social care professionals when needed. Referrals were appropriate and made in a timely manner based on people’s needs. Professionals feedback included, “I can see an improvement. Staff are much more proactive and making referrals off their own back” and “Since the manager has come, communication has got much better.” Staff were able to describe how they were now working in partnership with other agencies to meet peoples changing needs. For example, a staff member described how they were working with a person’s doctor, social worker and a physiotherapist to seek solutions to improve the care offered to a person where there were current difficulties.

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and access health appointments and other health services when needed. Family members told us they were confident any health concerns would be addressed and resolved. A family member commented, “Staff will call the doctor if [Name] is unwell. We feel well informed.” People confirmed they were supported to see the doctor and we observed visiting health professionals within Norton Lodge ensuring people’s health needs were being met.

The provider did not always routinely monitor people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They did not always ensure that outcomes were positive and consistent, or they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves. Whilst records were maintained to demonstrate care was provided to people, we found gaps in the recording systems used. For example, staff did not always record when they had assisted a person to reposition in bed or when they had undertaken general welfare checks on people. We shared our findings with the manager who told us they were aware some of systems to monitor the care delivered to people needed to be further improved and embedded into practice.

The provider did not always have a proactive and positive culture of safety based on openness and honesty. Lessons were not always learnt to continually identify and embed good practice. Improvements had been made since our last assessment in the recording and reporting of events which occurred. For example, actions taken in response to individual events which occurred were recorded. However, these improvements were only recently made, and we were unable to establish whether an improved culture of safety had been fully embedded.