Hartwood House

Updated 30 June 2022

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 team consisted of two inspectors, a nurse advisor and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Hartwood House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as 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 inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We received 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 (PIR). 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 of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with seven people who used the service and 13 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with eight members of staff, two team leaders, the registered manager and two care and quality managers. 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 eight people’s care records and medication records. We looked at staff records in relation to recruitment and staff supervision and training records. We also viewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures, care audits, safeguarding records, complaints and action plans.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records and we were provided with updates regarding partnership working with local authorities and external healthcare professionals.

Updated 30 June 2022

About the service

Hartwood House is care home registered to provide personal care for up to 50 older people who may be living with dementia. At the time of our inspection 35 people were using the service.

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

The management team explained they had faced a number of challenges since deregistering the nursing element of the service. They advised us communication between themselves and external professionals required improvement to ensure stronger collaborative working.

Staff were trained effectively in how to identify possible abuse and were confident the registered manager would investigate any concerns.

Care plans and risk assessments were in place to assist staff on how best to support people.

People were supported safely to manage their medicines.

The provider had effective measures in place to reduce the possibility or spread of infection.

The provider had effective recruitment procedures in place.

Suitable numbers of appropriately skilled, qualified and experienced staff were deployed to meet people’s needs at all times.

Relatives, people and staff were complimentary about the leadership in the home.

Effective governance systems were in place to help identify areas for improvement.

People and relatives told us staff worked in partnership effectively with external organisations.

Follow Up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to risk management, skin care, falls and communication. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection. We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 6 February 2018 and the report was published on 6 April 2018.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Hartwood House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.