• Care Home
  • Care home

Archived: St Valery Care Home

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

York Road, Kennington, Ashford, Kent, TN24 9QQ (01233) 613931

Provided and run by:
St Valery Ltd

Important: The provider of this service changed - see old profile

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 3 October 2019

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 conducted by one inspector.

Service and service type

St Valery is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care. The Care Quality Commission (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. 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 reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse. 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. 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 used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection, we spoke with six people who used the service, to ask about their experience of the care provided and three visiting family members. Most people were unable to tell us in any detail about their experiences, so 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 observed interactions between people and staff in the communal areas of the service. This was so we could understand people's experiences. By observing the care received, we could determine if they were comfortable with the support they were provided with.

We spoke with five members of staff including three care assistants, the cook and a member of the domestic staff. We also spoke with the deputy and registered managers. We met and spoke with two health care professionals visiting during the inspection.

We reviewed a range of records about people's care and how the service was managed. This included looking at two people's care records and a sample of people's medicines administration records. We reviewed records of staff meetings, staff rotas and staff training, we viewed four staff recruitment records. We also reviewed the records of accidents, incidents, complaints and quality assurance audits completed, and survey feedback from relatives.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found and asked the registered manager to send some additional supporting information in addition to contact details for additional relatives and professionals. We spoke with a further seven relatives and received feedback from a further social care professional.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 3 October 2019

About the service

St Valery is an adapted family run residential care home established in 1992. It provides accommodation and personal care for up to 16 older people aged 65 and over with dementia type conditions. The premises have three shared rooms, but the provider and registered manager have chosen to use two of these for single occupancy only. The number of people accommodated at any one time is therefore 14. At the time of the inspection the service was full. A small annexe (York House) located in the garden area of the service is registered separately with the Care Quality Commission for three people with lower dependency needs. People from the annexe are supported by staff from St Valery and make full use of the facilities at St Valery for their day to day support.

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

Since the last inspection the interim manager has become the registered manager. The registered manager and staff have continued to drive improvements in the service, maintaining the outstanding level of care people received and promoting and achieving exceptionally positive outcomes for people.

People and relatives spoke positively about the service. People told us that they felt safe and found the service homelike. “It’s like living at home really.” The provider had ensured that people lived in a safe well-maintained environment, risks were assessed and managed. Any improvements made were with a view of enhancing peoples experience. There were enough suitable staff available to meet people needs.

The registered manager fostered a culture of placing people at the centre of everything they do and aspire to do at St Valery. They and staff were passionate about the people they supported living their life to the fullest in the least restrictive way.

Staff were highly trained and motivated. The registered provider and manager fostered a nurturing and empowering environment so that staff could develop and feel confident in their knowledge and skills. Staff enjoyed working in the service and felt valued and supported. Staff retention was therefore very good and provided people with excellent continuity of high-quality care. Peoples dietary and health needs were managed well, and health professionals told us the service referred to them appropriately. 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 and their relatives universally told us that staff were kind and caring. Their support was compassionate and there was thought given to way in which they supported to uphold people’s dignity. There was a busy but relaxed atmosphere within the service with lots of chatter, laughter and smiles between people and the staff supporting them. The culture was open and friendly, and visitors were made welcome. There was a sense that people, their relatives and staff knew each other well. A relative told us they thought people in the service were “treated as equals by staff and given their self-respect.” This approach extended to relatives with one who visited many times in the week saying they were treated by staff “like a pal.”

Staff were very knowledgeable about people's needs and supported people to remain as independent as possible. The service had earned an excellent reputation with local health and social care professionals who described the service as “one of the best” and “I have always found this service as one that others should take notes from,” The registered manager was a strong advocate for people needing the service who were diagnosed with dementia type illnesses. They and their staff continued to find new ways in which to support people in little but important ways that made their day to day experiences and outcomes consistently good.

The registered manager was a visible presence in the service and knew all the people, their histories and their status well. Both relatives and professionals we spoke with were complimentary of the service and the registered managers leadership and caring values which she promoted across all staff. People received high-quality person-centred care that met their individual needs.

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. (Report published 22 December 2016)

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.