London Care (Chestnut House)

Updated 17 August 2022

The inspection

We carried out 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 Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

London Care [Chestnut House] is an ‘extra care’ scheme. This service provides care and support to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is bought or rented and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support service. At the time of the inspection the service was providing personal care for 32 people.

Registered manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

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

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke in person with the manager. We spoke with seven people, two relatives, and nine staff to get their views about the care provided. We looked at six people’s care plans and four staff records. We reviewed a range of records. They included staff rotas, training and supervision, risk assessments, reviews and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, quality assurance, policies and procedures. We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We requested additional evidence to be sent to us after our inspection. We received the information which was used as part of our inspection.

Updated 17 August 2022

About the service

London Care [Chestnut House] provides personal care and support to people living in an extra care housing scheme. This consists of 42 individual flats within a staffed building with some communal areas. A separate organisation manages the building. All 32 people using the service currently living at Chestnut House received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

At the last inspection, in 2018 improvements were required. the service provided was not always caring. People did not always receive a caring service as staff did not always have enough time to carry out agreed tasks or arrive at the agreed time.

At this inspection, improvements had been made and people and their relatives now received care and support from staff that were kind and caring and staff now had enough time to carry out their care calls.

People received a service that was safe for them to use and staff to work in. People said that staff did their utmost to meet their care needs and they did receive support at the agreed time, although occasionally they may be a little delayed whilst meeting other people’s needs. They were informed if staff were going to be late. People had risks to themselves assessed, monitored and reviewed. This enabled them to take acceptable risks, enjoy their lives and live in a safe way. Accidents, incidents and safeguarding concerns were reported, investigated and recorded. There were enough staff who had been appropriately recruited to meet people’s needs. Medicine was safely administered by trained staff.

People and their relatives said they liked the way staff provided care which met their needs. Staff provided them with care and support which was friendly, caring and empathetic. They felt staff acknowledged and respected their privacy, dignity and confidentiality. People were enabled to retain their independence by being encouraged and supported to do the things for themselves, that they still could. This promoted their self-worth and improved their quality of life.

The culture of the service was open and honest with a clearly defined vision and values that staff said they understood and followed. This was done in a way that was kind and sympathetic. The quality assurance systems and audits identified issues, that were then addressed. Staff had areas of responsibility and accountability that they were comfortable to take responsibility for and prepared to report any concerns. There were well-established working partnerships with health care professionals. Records including people’s daily logs and care plans were up to date, as well as staff information. People said the registered manager and staff had a caring and responsive approach.

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 28 February 2019).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating and specific concerns regarding the caring question of the previous report.

As no concerns were identified in relation to the key questions Effective, and Responsive, we decided not to inspect these questions. Ratings from the previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service remains good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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

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.