Archived: Glenthorne House

Updated 21 April 2018

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 is 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 service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place over three days. Our visits on 22 and 29 November 2017 were unannounced. We carried out an announced visit on 01 December 2017 to complete the inspection and speak with the manager. We previously inspected this location in July 2015 when we rated the provider as good in all areas and good overall.

The inspection was carried out by one inspector. On 22 November 2017 we were joined by an expert 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.

We reviewed the information we held about the provider. We also looked at information shared with us by the local authority commissioners. Commissioners are people who work to find appropriate care and support services which are paid for by the local authority. We looked at the statutory notifications the provider had sent to us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send to us by law.

We reviewed the information in the provider’s information return (PIR). This is a form we asked the provider to send to us before we visited. The PIR asked the provider to give us some key information about the service they provided including what they did well and improvements they plan to make.

To help us understand people’s experiences of the service provided we spent time during the inspection observing and talking with people in the communal areas of the home. This was to see how people spent their time, how staff provided care and support and to establish what they thought about the service they received. We also spoke with relatives who were visiting the home at the time of our inspection.

We spoke with five people who lived at Glenthorne House and nine relatives either while they visited the home or on the telephone. We spoke with the providers, the manager and eight staff members including team leaders, care staff, maintenance staff and catering staff. We also spoke with two health care professionals at the home and a further professional on the telephone.

We looked at four people’s care records and other records relevant to some of these people’s support such as medicines records and daily records. We looked at quality assurance checks, meetings involving people and relatives, compliments and complaints and accident records.

Updated 21 April 2018

This inspection took place over a period of three days. The visits on 22 and 29 November 2017 were unannounced. We announced our final visit on 1 December 2017 in order to speak with the manager to look at quality assurance systems.

We previous inspected Glenthorne House on 7 July 2015 and rated the provider to be Good in all five questions and Good overall.

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

Glenthorne House provides accommodation and personal care for a maximum of 27 older people. On the first day of our inspection there were 26 people living at the home. Some people were living with dementia.

There was a manager working at the home who was in the process of applying for registration. The former manager had applied to de-register and remained to work at the home under a different role. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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 service is run.

People and their family members told us they received care and support which protected them from harm and abuse. Risks associated to people’s care were identified and measure put into place to reduce these. People received their medicines as prescribed by staff trained to administer them. There were sufficient staff on duty to provide the care and support people required and to meet their needs. The provider used safe systems to recruit new staff.

Provision had been made to reduce the risk of infection within the home. The provider had made improvements in the environment of the home and had plans to make further improvements in the future.

Staff received training and were supported by management to ensure they had the skills and knowledge to provide the care and support required. People were supported to make choices about how they spent their time in the least restrictive way possible.

People received care from staff who were kind and respectful and upheld their privacy and dignity. People were seen to participate in activities and events they enjoyed doing. People’s care was planned to reflect their preferences and wishes. Technology had been used to assist in the provision of care and support provided for people.

People enjoyed the food provided. Staff adapted how they communicated with people to ensure they were aware of choices available to them. People were asked their permission before they were supported and had their wishes respected.

Health and social care professionals were involved in people’s care and support as needed. The provider worked in partnership with other organisations to support people’s well-being.

Relatives were positive about the care and support their family member received. Their views and suggestions were taken into account and they were encouraged to participate in the care of their family member. People and their relatives knew how to complain about the service provided.

Once brought to the attention of the management improvements identified as part of the inspection were acted upon in relation to privacy locks and testing of electrical appliances.