River Court Care Home

Updated 6 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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection had been carried out by three inspectors.

Service and service type

River Court Care Home 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. River Court Care Home is a care home with nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

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 a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

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 (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 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 talk with us. We spoke with five people about their experience of the care they received, two relatives, two nursing staff and three care staff, the deputy manager and the registered manager.

We looked at six people’s care records, medicine records, recruitment and other documents and audits relating to the management of the service.

Updated 6 August 2022

About the service

River Court provides accommodation, personal and nursing care to older people. The care home accommodates up to 120 people in a purpose-built building which was divided into four units. At the time of the inspection 112 people were living there.

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

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 felt safe in the home and staff knew how to identify and report any concerns to their managers or external safeguarding authorities. Risk assessments were developed to give staff guidance in how to mitigate risks and keep people safe from harm. There were enough staff recruited safely to meet people’s needs. Lessons were learnt and improvements made following significant events like safeguarding concerns, accidents or incidents. The environment was clean and fresh. Staff followed current government guidance when wearing their personal protective equipment (PPE).

Governance systems in place identified areas in need of improvement and these were actioned in a timely manner by the registered manager. Regular meetings were in place for staff and people to ensure they were contributing their views about the running of the home. Action plans were developed and checked for completion to ensure improvements were made where needed.

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 requires improvement (published 04 March 2020).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about risk management. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

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 not changed and remained requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-3134639224 on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.