Huntingdon Court

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – this means we looked for evidence that leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture. At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this key question the rating has remained good. This meant the service was consistently managed and well-led. Leaders and the culture they created promoted high-quality, person-centred care.

This service scored 71 (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 had a shared vision, strategy and culture. The provider had a clear aim of providing a caring, person-centred service which promoted people’s rights and preferences. Staff feedback about the culture and shared direction of the service was positive. Staff felt involved and engaged in the day to day running of the service. Staff comments included, “I love to care for people and the I like working with the staff. I like the teamwork and there is good communication here” and “I like working here; it is a good home. The residents are nice, and staff work as a team. We do lots of good work here. For example, people come from hospital, and they can’t stand; very soon, we help them, and they are walking again. It’s so good.”

The provider had inclusive leaders at all levels who understood the context in which they delivered care, treatment and support and embodied the culture and values of their workforce and organisation. Leaders had the skills, knowledge, experience and credibility to lead effectively. They did so with integrity, openness and honesty. There was a management structure with senior staff, registered manager, area managers and the nominated individual. All were actively involved in the service. Staff were positive about the management team and discussions with them showed they knew people and staff individually. A staff member told us, “I can go to the manager with any concerns; they are kind and approachable.” We saw the registered manager interacted with people who responded positively to them and knew them well.

The provider fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard. The registered manager told us they had an open-door policy and encouraged people, family members and staff to speak up freely. Staff said they felt able to raise anything with the management team and felt they would be listened to. Care staff were very positive about working at the service and would recommend it as a good place to work. Although there were no regular meetings with people, there was on-going engagement with people and their family members.

The provider valued diversity in their workforce. They worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who worked for them. Staff told us they felt supported and valued by the management team. All staff were positive about working at the service and felt they were treated with respect. The management team valued diversity and ensured best practice guidelines were followed. The provider had a policy to support staff to work flexibly around any personal circumstances.

The provider had clear responsibilities, roles, systems of accountability to support governance but these required further development to ensure they were always effective in ensuring full oversight of the care provided. Audits to monitor the quality of the service were regularly completed and action plans created and reviewed. However, they had not identified shortfalls we identified around medicines, care planning and environmental concerns as part of the assessment. In addition when their systems had identified improvements needed we found these were not always addressed in a timely manner. Following our inspection, the provider and registered manager implemented more robust processes to improve oversight and identify any shortfalls at an early stage. Although these were not embedded in practices, this provided assurance the provider was committed to making sustainable improvements.

The provider understood their duty to collaborate and work in partnership, so services worked seamlessly for people. The registered manager was working to improve information sharing and learning with partners and collaborated for improvement. The management team expressed an open, positive attitude to receiving support and understood how and where they could access this. The provider considered how they could enable people to live a good, ordinary life as part of their local community. They had developed links with local community organisations including schools, activities and religious organisations.

The provider focused on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation and local system. These included regular training sessions, meetings and supervision for managers and staff. The management team were open to feedback provided during our site visits and committed to making the necessary improvements. For example, the registered manager worked with people’s families to undertake an overhaul of the gardens to make it accessible for people pending improved maintenance arrangements. A senior management team was developing a strategic approach to identify, develop and monitor improvements across the providers’ services. For example, they had identified a gap between operations and maintenance and had acted to address this through additional dedicated resources and a structured development plan. The registered manager reviewed information from a range of agencies and used these to identify improvements, such as the need to improve communications and partnership working with some health professionals. The provider had systems in place to help ensure any lessons learnt from ‘sister’ services were implemented across all their services.