Clough House

Updated 18 June 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 Care Act 2014.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

One inspector carried out the inspection.

Service and service type

Clough House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

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 reviewed information we had received about the service, including information from the provider about important events that had taken place at the service, which they are required to send us. We sought feedback from the 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.

We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 13 April 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements

During the inspection

We spoke with nine people who lived at the home about their experiences of the care provided. We spoke with four members of staff including the registered manager, operational director and two care staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records, multiple medication records, accident and incident records and two staff recruitment records. We looked at a variety of records relating to the management of the service. We walked around the home and observed the environment and interactions between staff and people.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the registered manager to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 18 June 2022

About the service

Clough House is a residential home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 14 adults. There were 14 people living at the service at the time of the inspection. Some of the people lived with dementia or mental health needs and required support with their physical needs.

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

People told us they felt safe and protected from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm by staff who understood how to recognise, respond and report concerns. Risk assessments were in place to monitor and minimise the potential risk of avoidable harm to people during the delivery of their care. People were safely supported to receive their medicines as prescribed. People were supported by staff who had been safely recruited. Staff had received training and guidance in the prevention and control of infections including COVID-19.

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. However, the provider needed to ensure all people who required restrictions for their protection had authorisations in place. They took immediate action to rectify this. We have made a recommendation about monitoring those who need authorisations.

People's care and support had been planned in partnership with them, their specialist professionals and their relatives where possible. Staff had received training that was suitable to meet the needs of people in the home. Staff supported people in line with national and best practice guidance.

People shared positive comments about the caring nature of the staff team. They said staff were kind and caring. People were treated with dignity and respect and their right to privacy was upheld. We observed person- centred approaches to care and people told us they were treated with dignity.

The provider had made significant improvements to the quality monitoring, governance and leadership arrangements at the home. People told us their experiences had improved including the culture in the home. They had addressed shortfalls found at the last inspection. The service worked in partnership with a variety of agencies to ensure people received all the support they needed. Staff were positive with how the service was managed and the culture and morale within the staff team had significantly improved.

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 8 June 2019) and there were multiple 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 regulations.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted, in part, due to concerns received about care practices in the home. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. This inspection was also carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and caring sections of this full report.

We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective caring and well-led only. We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them.

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 changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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

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 coronavirus and other infection outbreaks effectively.

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.