Albany House - Doncaster

Updated 1 December 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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type: Albany House is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and personal care. 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

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection because we wanted to ensure that managers would be available to support our inspection visit. Inspection activity started on 4 November and ended on 16 November 2020. We undertook a site visit to the home on 4 November and held on-line meetings with members of the management team on 4 November and 16 November 2020.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from professionals who work with the service, including Doncaster local authority. 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 nominated individual, the deputy manager a senior carer two care workers and a laundry assistant during the inspection visit. Due to the COVID restrictions we met and spoke with one person who used the service . Further inspection activity was completed by telephone and email. This included speaking with four people’s relatives about their experience of the care provided. We maintained contact with the registered manager by telephone, e-mail and on-line meetings throughout the inspection process.

We reviewed a range of information sent to us by the service. This included specific risk assessments and the related care plans for two people. We reviewed records of staff training and supervision including fire drills. We looked at the COVID-19 risk assessment for the service, quality assurance and safety audits, including recent infection control and medicines audits, and all the associated action plans. We saw monitoring records kept and analysed by the registered manager, related to areas of risk, such falls. We also saw the annual quality survey feedback and minutes of recent staff meetings.

Updated 1 December 2020

About the service

Albany House – Doncaster is a residential care home providing personal care and accommodation for up to 40 people. There are two areas of the home, with one of the units specialising in supporting people living with a more advanced stage of dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 26 people living in the home.

People’s experience of using this service:

A new manager had registered with CQC since the last inspection and they had worked with the provider in addressing the shortfalls identified at the last inspection and to make further improvements in the service. Improvements had been made in cleanliness and infection control and we were assured the service were following safe infection prevention and control procedures to keep people safe. The provider had ensured staff knew what to do in the event of a fire. Improvements had also been made to the effectiveness of the quality and safety audits, so appropriate governance and quality assurance systems were in place to monitor and improve the service.

Relatives told us people felt safe and happy with the staff who cared for them. We saw risks were well managed, and people’s medicines were managed safely. Staff had a good understanding of how to safeguard people from abuse and there were enough staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.

We received very positive feedback about the management and leadership of the service from people we spoke with. This included people’s relatives, staff and other professionals. One relative said, “[The registered manager] is amazing.” The feedback we received also showed the service worked creatively to help people keep in touch with their friends and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also evident the team worked well in partnership with other professionals to provide a person centred service that met people’s needs.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update:

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 10 April 2019) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of the regulations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection. Additionally, the inspection looked at the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practices the provider has in place. This is because, as part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of coronavirus, we are conducting reviews to ensure the IPC practice was safe, and the service was compliant with IPC measures.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. We did not inspect other key questions as no areas of concern were identified in 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 changed from requires improvement to good.

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

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.