Southcrest Nursing Home

Updated 17 January 2020

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.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector and specialist nurse advisor on 26 November 2019. One inspector concluded the inspection on 28 November 2019.

Service and service type

Southcrest Nursing Home 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.

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.

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

Before this inspection visit we looked at the information we had received about the service since the last inspection. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as abuse; and we sought feedback from the local authority and the clinical commissioning group who work with the service. We also requested feedback from Healthwatch to obtain their views of the service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spent time with people and spoke with six people who lived at the home and two relatives about their experience of the care provided. 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. We also spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager, the office administrator, a nurse, three care staff and the cook.

We looked at a range of records. This included people’s care and multiple medication records. We also looked at two staff recruitment files, incident records, selected records relating to the safety of the premises and management of the service.

After the inspection

We spoke with three relatives about their experiences of the care provided. We also looked at the information the registered manager sent us about the actions they had taken to drive through improvements.

Updated 17 January 2020

About the service

Southcrest Nursing Home is a care home that provides nursing and personal care for up to 40 people within one large adapted building. It provides care to people requiring general nursing care some of whom live with dementia and have physical disabilities. At the time of our inspection, 31 people were living at the home.

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

There were some elements of care documentation which required reviewing further to ensure the information provided was personalised and an accurate account of people’s care to guide staff. More could be done to provide people with consistent recreational and social activities to meet their interests and stimulate people’s senses.

People's care and support had been enhanced by the provider and management team working together to make improvements since our last inspection. Work was continuing to drive through further improvements required as identified at this inspection. The registered manager understood time was needed to embed improvements and sustain these.

People's safety was protected from abuse by staff who knew what procedures to follow to keep people safe from harm. Staffing arrangements were reviewed to promote people's safety and individual needs.

Improvements were made since our last inspection to infection prevention and control practices. Staff were provided with training and protective equipment to manage the risks associated with infection prevention and control. People were provided with assistance to take their medicines and their health was promoted by staff who worked alongside the relevant professionals.

Systems for the safe recruitment of staff were robust. Staff received an induction which was based on the providers expectations of their staff team and ongoing management support to assist staff to continually improve in their roles.

People's individual needs and requirements were assessed prior to them moving into the home. People had support to eat and drink safely and comfortably, and contact had been made with doctors where required to obtain advice about meeting people's nutritional needs.

The provider had made improvements following our previous inspection to ensure people's rights under the Mental Capacity Act were understood and promoted by staff and management.

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. People's consent was sought by staff who knew people's preferred communication styles to aid their understanding in making everyday choices and decisions.

Staff supported people to be pain free at the end of their lives and for their wishes to be followed at this important time in their lives. Relatives were welcomed into the home and included in their family member’s care. Incidents and complaints were analysed, and learning was shared with staff. People living at the home and their relatives were encouraged to raise issues around quality and safety.

The registered manager was open and responsive to making ongoing improvements and achieving good quality care.

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 20 December 2018) 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

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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

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.

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