Fernbank Residential Home

Updated 15 December 2022

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was undertaken by one inspector.

Service and service type

Fernbank Residential Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Fernbank Residential Home is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations. At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people who were using the service about their experience of the care provided and two family members. We spoke to five staff members including the Registered Manager, Regional Operations Manager, Head of Care and two carers. We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care records and medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment and training. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including quality assurance and policies and procedures were reviewed. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

Updated 15 December 2022

About the service

Fernbank Residential Home is a care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 46 older people, some who may also be living with dementia. There were 42 people living in the home at the time of our inspection. The service was one adapted building laid out over three floors with a new extension having been built.

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

People told us they felt safe living at the home and that staff were kind and considerate towards them. Risks to people had been assessed and actions put in place to mitigate these. People were supported by enough, qualified staff who had received training that was specific to the needs of the people they cared for. Infection control procedures had been updated in line with COVID-19 guidance to help protect people, visitors and staff from the risk of infection. People medicines were managed and administered safely.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The registered manager ensured that quality assurance systems were completed to monitor people’s safety and care, and to drive improvement. The registered manager encouraged feedback from people, staff and professionals involved in people’s care. Staff worked closely with health professionals and external agencies to promote good outcomes for people. People spoke positively about the registered manager.

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 10 October 2019).

Why we inspected

We received concerns in relation to falls management and staff’s response to incidents. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained at good based on the findings of this inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.