The Pines Residential Care Home

Updated 1 June 2022

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of COVID-19, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practice is safe and that services are compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place. We also asked the provider about any staffing pressures the service was experiencing and whether this was having an impact on the service.

This inspection took place on 27 January 2022. The inspection was announced two hours before the inspection took place.

Updated 1 June 2022

About the service

The Pines Residential Care Home is a residential care home. It provides personal and nursing care for up to 24 people. At the time of our inspection, 14 people lived in the home.

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

Feedback we received from staff, people and relatives was very positive. Improvements had been made in the areas we inspected and to the management of the home. As these changes were recent the provider was aware the improvements needed to be sustained however, they had made significant progress.

We observed care being delivered in the home and saw this was done in a caring and patient manner. We saw people were comfortable in the presence of staff and positive relationships had developed between people receiving support, relatives and care staff. Visitors told us staff were kind and treated their relatives with dignity and respect.

Improvements had been made to how environmental safety was monitored, and infection control standards were also monitored and managed appropriately.

Care plans and risk assessments were in place that now reflected the needs of the people. Medicines were managed safely and those staff who administered medication had had their competency to do so checked.

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. We saw consent was sought and recorded in line with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Improvements had been made to staff recruitment, induction, supervision and training processes. Staff attended meetings and had regular checks on their day to day practice. Staff we spoke with felt well supported.

Accidents and incidents were managed appropriately, and referrals were made to other professionals in a timely manner when needed. The registered manager had notified CQC of significant incidents when it was appropriate to do so. The provider and management team had a range of audits in place that helped drive improvements in the service. This helped to ensure people living in the home received the care they needed.

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 inadequate (published 15 October 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.

This service has been in special measures since 15 October 2019. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall however, is still rated as inadequate in the responsive domain as this domain was not inspected during this inspection. Therefore, this service is still in special measures.

Why we inspected

A decision was made for us to inspect, examine and follow up what improvements had been made since we last visited the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the domains of ‘safe’, ‘effective’ and’ well-led’ only. Our report is only based on the findings in those areas at this inspection. The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for the domains of ‘caring’ and ‘responsive’ were not looked at on this occasion.

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. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has changed from inadequate to requires improvement. 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, The Pines Residential 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.

The overall rating for this service is ‘Requires improvement’. However, we are placing the service in 'special measures'. We do this when services have been rated as 'Inadequate' in any Key Question over two consecutive comprehensive inspections. The ‘Inadequate’ rating does not need to be in the same question at each of these inspections for us to place services in special measures. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within six months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.