Douglas House

Updated 18 February 2025

Date of assessment: 5 to 24 March 2025. This assessment was prompted by information of concern received in relation to staffing, governance, personal care, medicines management and lack of choice regarding food. Douglas House- Care Home with Nursing Physical Disabilities, is a nursing home that provides accommodation for persons who require nursing and personal care for up to 30 people, at the time of our assessment, 22 people were living at the service. The service specialises in supporting people under and over 65 yrs old, with dementia, learning disabilities, mental health conditions and/or physical disabilities.

An assessment has been undertaken of a service that is used by autistic people or people with a learning disability. We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

At our last assessment, we rated the service good. At this assessment we have rated the service requires improvement. We found 2 breaches of regulation in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance. The service did not always learn from previous hospital admissions to prevent reoccurrence. The service did not always do all that is reasonably practicable to mitigate identified risks to improve the quality of care, and plans were not always in place to support people to manage risks effectively. Medicines were not always managed safely. Governance systems were in place but were not always effective. However, people were protected and kept safe from abuse. People were treated with kindness, empathy and compassion and staff respected people’s privacy and dignity. The service was passionate about getting care right and was responsive to our feedback throughout the assessment. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

Updated 18 February 2025

During the assessment, we received mixed feedback from people and their relatives.One relative told us they were able to speak up and felt issues were acted on. A person told us they felt involved in decisions about their care and treatment, which were explained well by staff. However, another person told us, “I am not kept up to date with anything.” And “We don’t get told until it has happened.”

We spoke with 3 people and 3 relatives to help assess and understand how people’s care needs were being met. We contacted healthcare professionals who visited the service. However, we did not receive any feedback. Some people could not directly tell us about their experience. 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. Observations on day 1 showed people using the service were sometimes withdrawn and had a lack of engaging interactions. One person told us, “They (staff) just plonk a resident in front of the TV in the afternoon, and that is not stimulating, and I know a lot of us have different capacities, but we all need stimulation”. However, on day 2 of the onsite inspection, we saw more people involved in activities and accessing the local area. Staff were kind and respectful when communicating with people, and there were enough staff to meet people’s needs. We observed call bells being answered promptly, and relatives told us these were responded to quickly.