West Hallam Care Home

West Hallam Care Home is a residential care home providing personal care to up to 31 people. The service provides support to older and younger adults, people living with dementia and people who have physical disabilities. At the time of our inspection there were 25 people using the service. Accommodation is provided in one adapted building.

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

West Hallam Care Home provided homely surroundings where people felt safe. People knew who to tell if they had any concerns and were confident these would be addressed. Infection prevention and control procedures were implemented to reduce the risk of infection to people. People enjoyed friendly, respectful interactions with staff. Staff were trained to be competent and confident to ensure people’s medicines were safely managed.

The home was well run and provided a welcoming and caring environment. Feedback about the home, the staff team and the registered manager was consistently positive. One relative told us, “I can’t praise them enough. I would highly recommend (the home)”.

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.

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 20 February 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

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 COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

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 remained the same.

Follow up

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

This was the first inspection of the service since the reregistration 12 months previously. The inspection took place on 14 and 15 December 2017. The first day of the inspection was unannounced.

A registered manager was not in post at the time of the inspection visit. This is a condition of the registration of the service. Since the inspection visit, the manager has been registered. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People's risk assessments provided staff with information on how to support people safely, though some assessments were not fully in place. Lessons to prevent incidents occurring had not been comprehensively learnt from past events.

Staff had been trained in safeguarding (protecting people from abuse) and understood their responsibilities in this area. Staff were subject to checks to ensure they were appropriate to work with the people who used the service. People were protected from the risks of infection.

People using the service and relatives we spoke with said they thought the home was safe.

People using the service told us they thought their medicines were given safely and on time and this had been the case when we checked.

Staff had been trained to ensure they had the skills and knowledge to meet people's needs. Staff understood their main responsibility under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) to allow, as much as possible, people to have an effective choice about how they lived their lives.

People had plenty to eat and drink and everyone told us they liked the food served.

People's health care needs had been protected by referrals to health care professionals when necessary.

People told us they liked the staff and got on well with them. We saw many examples of staff working with people in a friendly and caring way. People and their representatives were involved in making decisions about their care, treatment and support.

Care plans were individual to the people using the service and covered their health and social care needs. Activities were organised to provide stimulation for people and they had opportunities to take part in activities in the community if they chose.

People and their relatives told us they would tell staff if they had any concerns and were confident these would be followed up.

People and staff we spoke with were satisfied with how the home was run by the registered manager. Management carried out audits and checks to ensure the home was running properly to meet people's needs.