Archived: Thornbury Villa

Updated 7 January 2020

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 one adult social care inspector 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

Thornbury Villa is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a 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, who was also the provider, registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they 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, on the first day.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We contacted Health watch and the local authority's quality improvement team. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

We also checked notifications made to us by the provider, safeguarding alerts raised regarding people living at the home and information we held on our database about the service and provider. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 12 people, six relatives and ten staff, which included the owners and providers, the manager and deputy manager, the chef and care staff. We looked at the personal care and support plans for five people and three staff files. We contacted five health care professionals to get their views of the service.

After the inspection

We asked for and received additional information from the provider which was used as part of our inspection.

Updated 7 January 2020

About the service

Thornbury Villa is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 14 older people. The service is based in an period property that has been adapted to meet the needs of the people living there. At the time of the inspection there were 14 people living in the service.

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

People told us they were very happy living at Thornbury Villa and without exception, everyone told us staff were exceptionally respectful, kind, caring and went out of their way to provide person-centred care. Our observations confirmed this and we saw the atmosphere of the home was one of warmth, happiness and positivity. Staff consistently showed respect, patience and understanding when supporting people.

The providers, management team and staff were passionate about providing a service which was caring, compassionate and reflected the values of the organisation. These were based on an ethos of “Somewhere special enough to call home” which was displayed in the home and was embedded into staffs’ practice. The culture within the home supported a warm and friendly atmosphere.

People, visitors, staff and professionals were overwhelmingly positive about the leadership of the home. They felt the reason for the consistent high quality of service came from the proactive and positive leadership which filtered down to all of the staff. People told us the providers and managers cared about the people living there. A health professional told us, “The staff there are universally caring, compassionate and respectful to the residents. We have patients in many care homes, so it is with a breadth of perspective that I regard the consistent, effective and timely care at Thornbury Villa to be of exceptional standard.”

We received consistent highly positive feedback and praise from health and social care professionals with recent involvement with the service. They told us staff were pro-active in managing people's health and social care needs in a person-centred way.

People received personalised care and support specific to their needs and preferences. There was an excellent understanding of seeing each person as an individual, with their own social and cultural diversity, values and beliefs. Staff received training in equality and diversity to ensure the key values of kindness, respect, compassion, dignity in care and empowerment were present in people's day to day care.

Thornbury Villa worked in a person-centred way to find innovative and individual approaches to meet people's communication needs and people were enabled to communicate in ways which were meaningful for them. Staff used their knowledge of people to engage with them effectively and were working all the time to remove barriers to communication.

People were supported to continually grow and achieve their goals and aspirations. Staff encouraged a 'nothing is impossible' attitude to people's goals and aspirations and creatively supported people to develop in a way that really enriched their lives.

There was a strong emphasis at the home on the importance of supporting people to maintain a healthy and balanced diet. Staff were extremely proactive in ensuring people's nutrition and hydration needs were met. They worked creatively to help improve care in this area and provide positive health outcomes for people.

The provider and managers were very proactive in taking every opportunity to facilitate staffs learning and development to benefit the people living in the home. For example, they held workshops and training sessions with staff to improve nutrition, hydration and oral care. Staff were empowered to make improvements at the home that had a positive impact on the people living there.

People benefitted from a full programme of activities taking place in the home, such as, visits from entertainers. Group activities were offered to those who wanted to participate, such as quizzes, film afternoons and baking. People told us they thoroughly enjoyed their social life and the activities at Thornbury Villa.

People receiving end of life care were treated with care and compassion and staff were highly motivated to provide high standards of end of life care. The management team and staff were very passionate about ensuring people and their loved ones, experienced positive end of life care that was delivered with sensitivity. Health professionals commended the end of life care that people had received at Thornbury Villa. One healthcare professional told us, “I recently had an end of life patient and the care staff gave to the resident and her family was superb, they were responsive to her needs and caring and supportive to family members.”

People felt safe living at the home. Staff understood the need to protect people from harm and knew what action they should take if they had any concerns. Staffing levels ensured that people received the support they required to keep them safe. Recruitment procedures protected people from receiving unsafe care from care staff unsuited to the job.

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. (published 18 May 2017).

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 inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.