Background to this inspection
Updated
12 November 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. This was a targeted inspection. CQC are conducting trials of this type of inspection to follow up services where CQC have issued a warning notice.
Inspection team: The inspection was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type
HF Trust – No 3 & 4a Milton Heights 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 did not have a manager who was registered with the Care Quality Commission. The previous registered manager had left the service. A registered manager and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. An acting manager was in place during this inspection.
Notice of inspection: This inspection was unannounced.
What we did before inspection
We reviewed information we received about the service since the last inspection. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.
During the inspection
We spoke with the acting manager and two support workers. We reviewed a range of records in relation to breaches of the regulations to ensure they were now compliant.
Updated
12 November 2019
About the service
HF Trust – No 3 & 4a Milton Heights is a residential care home that was providing support and personal care to five people with a learning disability at the time of the inspection.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The purpose of this inspection was to check if the provider had met the requirements of the warning notice. An action plan to address the warning notice carried out by CQC had been implemented. The provider and manager had taken steps to improve the service and ensured people received safer care. The requirements of the warning notice had been met and therefore the provider was no longer in breach of regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) and regulation 17 (Good governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
People’s individually assessed risks were recorded and dated appropriately. Improvements had been made to ensure people’s environments were kept safe. People’s medicines were safely managed including over the counter medicines.
People’s records had been improved to ensure they were accurate and complete. Staff had been given further training on completing electronic records to ensure relevant information was included.
The governance of the service had improved. This included effective quality assurance such as regular auditing records to ensure they were accurately completed to monitor risk. New systems were in place to ensure all recording was completed clearly by all staff.
Rating at last inspection and update:
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 27 April 2019) when there were continued breaches of regulation. Following our last inspection, we served warning notices on the provider and the registered manager. We required them to be compliant with Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) and Regulation 17 (Good governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 by 21 June 2019.
Why we inspected
This was a targeted inspection based on the warning notices we served on the provider and the registered manager following our last inspection. CQC are conducting trials of targeted inspections to measure their effectiveness in services where we served a warning notice.
We undertook this targeted inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the safety and governance of the service. The overall rating for the service has not changed following this targeted inspection and remains requires improvement. This is because we have not assessed all areas of the key questions.
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.