Archived: Loxley Court

Updated 24 August 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the home under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 20 July 2015 and was unannounced. This meant the provider did not know we were going to carry out an inspection on the day. The inspection was carried out by two adult social care inspectors and two experts-by-experience (ExE’s). An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Prior to our inspection, we contacted 11 stakeholders including local NHS teams and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG), the local authority care home support team, a podiatry service and a tissue viability nurse. Stakeholders we spoke with told us they had no current concerns about Loxley Court in the main, but that there were areas in which the home could improve. We also checked any previous notifications or concerns we had received about the home. This information was used so that we could check issues or concerns had been dealt with appropriately.

During our inspection we spoke with four people who lived at the home and three of their relatives to obtain their views of the support provided. We spoke with ten members of staff, which included the registered manager, the administrator, care workers, an activity worker and ancillary staff such as catering and domestic staff. We also spoke with three health professionals who were visiting the home during our inspection.

We looked at documents kept by the home including the care records of four people who lived at the home and the personnel records of seven staff members. We also looked at records relating to the management and monitoring of the home, including any audits carried out and reviews of care documents and policies.

Updated 24 August 2015

We carried out this inspection on 20 July 2015 and it was an unannounced inspection. This means the provider did not know we were going to carry out the inspection. At the last full inspection carried out in November 2014, we found the home to be non-compliant with the following regulations of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010; 10; Assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision, 13; Management of medicines, 18; Consent to care and treatment and 22; Staffing. Compliance actions were given for regulations 13, 18 and 22 and a warning notice was issued against regulation 10. We followed up on these breaches during this inspection.

Loxley Court Care Home is located on the outskirts of Sheffield. It caters for up to 76 older people whose needs may include mental health or dementia. Nursing care is provided. Accommodation is provided over three floors, accessed by a lift, which includes a challenging behaviour unit on the ground floor for up to ten people. There are three double bedrooms, the remainder of the rooms are single. Each bedroom has an ensuite toilet. There are lounges and a dining area on each floor of the home. On the day of our inspection, there were 38 people living at the home, some living with dementia and one new admission.

It is a condition of registration with the Care Quality Commission that the home has a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the home. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the home is run. The registered manager was present on the day of our inspection.

People and their relatives told us they felt the home was safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. Comments included; “[The home] is a safe place to be”, “[Staff] always ask me what I want doing and how they should do it”, “People are so kind, I never thought I’d be this happy in a home but it’s great” and “I go to residents meetings when I can. It’s a good time to tell [staff] what we think about the home. And it’s a good place to chat.”

People were protected from abuse and the home followed adequate and effective safeguarding procedures. Care records contained personalised and relevant information for staff to assist in providing personalised care and support.

Staff told us they felt well supported and they received regular supervisions. Training updates were provided regularly and training targets were measured on a ‘red, amber, green’ scale, where red meant that training or updates were required and green meant training had been completed. Where staff wanted to attend any other training courses, they were able to request this as part of their supervisions.

We found good practice in relation to decision making processes at the home, in line with the Mental Capacity code of practice, the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.

The registered manager carried out regular audits at the home and recorded any required actions on audits and on the ‘home action plan’. Actions that had been identified as a result of audits were verified and signed off by the registered manager when they had been addressed and completed.