Highfields Residential/Dementia Care Home

Updated 12 January 2024

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.

This was a targeted inspection in response to specific concerns regarding people's safety particularly in relation to fire.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

Highfields Residential/Dementia Care 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. Highfields Residential/Dementia Care 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. We visited the home on 20 November 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information we held about the service. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the deputy manager and care staff who were on duty at the time of the inspection. We spent time walking around the home to enable us to see the environment and we also reviewed a number of records relating to fire safety at the home.

Updated 12 January 2024

About the service

Highfields Residential/Dementia Care Home is a residential care home providing personal care for up to 27 people. The service provides support to older people, some of whom are living with dementia. The home is a converted property providing accommodation and communal areas over three floors. At the time of our inspection there were 14 people using the service.

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

People, staff and visitors were not adequately protected from the risk of fire. During our inspection we identified fire doors which had not been maintained and were not effective. Fire escapes did not provide a safe and clear route of escape in the event of a fire. All staff had not completed a fire drill and were not equipped with the necessary skills to assist people should they need to evacuate the building.

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, under the previous registered provider, was good (published 25 March 2020.

Why we inspected

We undertook this targeted inspection in response to concerns regarding fire safety at the service.

A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We use targeted inspections to check concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.

Enforcement

We have identified a breach in relation to safe care and treatment and have served a warning notice on the registered provider. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

Follow up

We have requested an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.