Yaxley House

Updated 6 March 2020

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 two inspectors.

Service and service type

Yaxley House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

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 contacted the Local Authority and Healthwatch for information they held about the service to help us plan our inspection. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people who used the service and four relatives about their experience of the service provided. We spoke with two regional managers present at the service on the day and the registered manager, a member of the catering staff, activities staff and three care staff. 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 reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records and multiple medication records. We saw records relating to the management of the service. These included minutes of meetings with staff and checks undertaken by the registered manager, senior staff and provider on the safety and quality of care, such as audits and surveys. We also saw systems used to manage complaints. In addition, we reviewed the compliments which had been received by staff and records of interesting things people liked to do.

After the inspection

We analysed the information we had received about the service.

Updated 6 March 2020

About the service

Yaxely House is a residential care home providing personal care for up to 34 older people, some of whom may be living with dementia. At the time of our inspection 30 people were living at Yaxley House.

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

Risks to people had been assessed before they moved to Yaxley House and staff understood how to keep people safe. There were enough staff available to meet people’s needs, and robust recruitment procedures were followed. Medicines were managed safely by staff who had received appropriate training. The service was clean throughout and well maintained. The registered manager held meetings with their managers and senior staff to review how the service could improve and develop.

Staff had been provided with training and developed skills which linked to the needs of the people they cared for. People enjoyed their mealtime experiences, which reflected their choices, and people were provided the assistance they required so they would have enough to eat and drink. People were taken to or were visited by health and social care professionals promptly when needed. 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 informed us the staff cared for them and treated them with dignity and respect. Each person had a care plan which was reviewed at regularly intervals or sooner should the need arose. People benefitted from working with designated activity staff which arranged games and events in line with peoples choices. The service had a complaints policy and also a grumbles book which was reviewed frequently by the registered manager and resulting action taken to resolve any issues. The service staff worked closely with other professionals following agreed care plans that people had made regarding their end of life care.

People and their relatives told us the service was managed well and the staff team provided good care. The registered manager and senior team carried out quality checks to ensure that care was being carried out safely.

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 21 July 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.