Golders Green Nursing

Updated 26 June 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. 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:

The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector and two experts 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. The expert by experience supported this inspection by carrying out telephone calls to people and their relatives to gain their feedback about the service.

Service and service type:

Golders Green Nursing is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and support to people living in their own houses and flats. It provides a service to older adults.

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 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in to support the inspection process.

What we did:

Prior to the inspection, we reviewed the information that we held about the service and the provider including notifications affecting the safety and well-being of people who used the service. We reviewed the Provider Information Return (PIR) which the provider had sent to us. A PIR is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and the improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection we spoke with five people using the service and eight relatives to obtain their feedback on the care and support that they or their relative received. We spoke with the registered manager, the nurse manager and six care staff members.

We looked at the care records and medicines administration records for four people who used the service. We also looked at the personnel and training files of four staff. Other documents that we looked at relating to people's care included risk assessments, staff meeting minutes, handover notes, quality audits and policies and procedures.

Updated 26 June 2019

About the service:

Golders Green Nursing is a domiciliary care service providing personal care and support to people living in their own home. Commissioned care packages consist of a minimum of four to six hours per care call, with many people commissioning full day or night time care where required. The registered manager and nurse manager responsible for the management and delivery of care are both qualified nurses who continue to maintain their registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Golders Green Nursing was providing personal care and support to 27 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

People were highly complementary of the care and support that they received from Golders Green Nursing. We were told that the service and care staff were, “excellent”, “fantastic”, “helpful” and “professional.”

People and relatives told us that they felt safe with the care and support that they and their relative received. Staff knew how to identify signs of abuse and who to report their concerns to.

Risk assessments in place assessed risks associated with people’s care and health needs and gave direction on how to minimise known risks and keep people safe.

People received their medicines safely and as prescribed.

Recruitment processes in place ensured that only those staff assessed as safe and competent to work with vulnerable adults were recruited. We were told that there were currently sufficient numbers of staff available to meet people’s needs safely.

Support mechanisms were in place for staff to effectively carry out their role which included induction, regular training, supervisions and annual appraisals.

People's capacity to make day-to-day decisions had been considered and assessed. The service was working within the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

People had good health care support. Staff worked in partnership with health and care professionals.

Care plans were person centred and gave comprehensive information about the person, their needs and how they wished to be supported.

People and their relatives knew who to speak with if they had a complaint or concern to raise and were confident their concerns would be addressed.

Checks and audits in place enabled the service to monitor, learn and improve the quality of care and support people received.

More information is in the detailed findings below.

Rating at last inspection: Good (Report Published 11 November 2016)

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.

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