We carried out a review of the data available to us about Whitegates Retirement Home on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Whitegates Retirement Home, you can give feedback on this service.
Whitegates retirement home is a residential care home providing personal care to up to 24 people. The service provides support to older people. At the time of our inspection there were 21 people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People were supported to keep safe by staff who knew them well. Risks to people were well managed and staff understood people's unique needs. There were enough staff to support people and staff were recruited safely. People were supported to receive their medicines safely. The home was clean and hygienic, and staff followed infection prevention and control procedures. People were supported to receive visitors to the home when they wanted to. Staff learned from incidents at the home and made changes to improve things for people.
People's needs were holistically assessed in line with standards, guidance and the law. People's preferences were detailed in their care plans for staff to follow. People received support from trained, experienced staff. People were supported to eat and drink by staff and were involved in decisions around the menus. Action was taken by staff when people were at risk of malnutrition or dehydration. Staff ensured people had access to healthcare when they needed it and worked with other professionals to provide support to people. The design of the home had been decided by people living at the home.
People were supported by staff that were kind and caring. People’s relatives agreed and told us, “Staff are lovely, absolutely lovely every single one. Cheerful, helpful and caring.” We saw that staff spent time with people, understood their individual differences and appreciated people's qualities. People were supported to express their views and were involved in making decisions about their own care. People's privacy and dignity was respected by staff and staff encouraged people to be independent.
Staff were responsive to people's needs. People's care was planned in a personalised way and the management team carried out regular observations to check that people were receiving this care. Staff knew how people wanted to be communicated with and made information accessible to them. There was a wide range of activities for people to get involved in and people told us they enjoyed these. Complaints and concerns raised were viewed by staff as an opportunity to improve the service for people.
The culture of the home was calm and friendly. Staff were positive about supporting people and people told us they enjoyed spending time with staff. The registered manager ensured that the quality of the service provided was regularly monitored and improvements made where needed. People and their relatives were positive about the registered manager, one person’s relative told us, “[manager] is a very helpful and considerate person and very interested in welfare of the residents.” People, relatives and staff were involved in how the service was run.
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
Why we inspected
This service was registered with us on 23 August 2022 and this is the first inspection. The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good, published on 20 October 2017.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
We found the following examples of good practice.
The registered manager had a clear visitor policy in place and clear infection prevention and control plans in place for when visits could resume. This included visitors receiving COVID-19 tests prior to entry, having their temperatures taken and the purchase of a hand washing station for the visitor area. Visitors were kept up to date with changes in visiting policies through emails and newsletters. Visits for people at end of life were supported throughout the pandemic and staff ensured that relatives were taken on a route through the home that was closest to the person’s bedroom.
Staff were wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) in line with government guidance. Staff had received training in how to safely put on and take off PPE as well as infection prevention and control (IPC) training. The registered manager had ensured that the home had plenty of PPE available.
The home was clean and hygienic. Cleaning schedules had been adapted to include the cleaning of frequently touched surfaces. Chairs in the lounge had been changed for ones that could be easily cleaned and were arranged to support social distancing of people living at the home.
The registered manager had clear plans for how to keep people safe in the event of an outbreak. This included thorough cleaning schedules and a protocol for supporting people in their bedrooms.
Staff had focused on activities for people throughout the pandemic and had tried to keep people as engaged as possible. There was a designated activity worker that arranged and led a wide range of activities throughout the week. Some people also participated in virtual activities. The home had a social media page on which they posted pictures of their activities for relatives to see. Several small groups had been started such as a poetry group and scrabble group.