Wispington House Limited

Updated 25 July 2023

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.

Inspection team

The inspection team was made up of 1 inspector.

Wispington House 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. 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 no registered manager in post. However the manager in post was in the process of registering with CQC. We will continue to monitor this application

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We conducted 2 site visit days as part of this inspection: on 28 and 29 June 2023

We spoke with 6 people and 2 relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with the manager, the deputy manager, 3 care staff, the cook and the activities coordinator. We also spoke with a visiting health professional. Following our visit we spoke with the nominated individual for the service by telephone. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

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 reviewed a range of written records including 3 people’s care files, medicine records, 3 staff recruitment files and information relating to the auditing and monitoring of service provision.

After the inspection

We reviewed further information we had requested from the provider.

Updated 25 July 2023

About the service

Wispington House is a residential care home providing personal care for up to 26 people aged 65 years and over. At the time of the inspection, the service was supporting 22 people. The care home supports people in one adapted building. There are 2 floors with a stair lift installed.

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

There were systems and processes in place to protect people from harm. Staff were aware of their responsibilities in protecting people from abuse, and people told us they felt safe. The manager had processes in place to learn from events to reduce risks to people’s safety.

The risks to people’s safety were well managed. People were provided with care and/or equipment they needed to reduce the risks to their safety. This included regular repositioning, to reduce the risk of skin damage, or walking aids, to reduce the risk of falls and increase their independence.

People told us staff always worked to meet their needs but there were times when they were busy or short staffed, this was often due to short notice sickness. The manager worked to manage staff sickness and had been recruiting staff to allow them to meet the established numbers of staff required.

People’s medicines were managed safely. Staff had received training for safe handling of medicines and the manager’s audits of medicines were effective in maintaining safe practices and storage of medicines.

Good infection control practices were in place to reduce the risk of the spread of infection at the service.

People’s needs were assessed using nationally recognised assessment tools. People’s care was recorded on a new electronic care planning system. The provider and manager were reviewing this system to ensure going forward it would meet the needs of the service.

Staff received training to support them in their roles and people told us they were happy with the way staff supported them.

People were supported with their nutritional and health needs. People enjoyed the food they were served and told us staff were quick to deal with any health issues which required external health professionals.

People lived in an adapted building which had an ongoing refurbishment plan in place to ensure areas were updated when required. They were able to personalise their rooms.

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.

The service had a manager in post who was not yet registered with the CQC but had applied for their registration. There were quality monitoring processes in place, some required some updating but the manager was aware and was working to an action plan to ensure completion.

The provider had processes in place to ensure oversight of the service. There were plans to also further support the manager with a quality monitoring consultant visit on a monthly basis. This would also support the provider oversite.

People, relatives and staff felt the staff at the service were open, honest, and supportive. Many people spoke about the homely atmosphere at the service.

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

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 COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

At our last inspection on 24 March 2022 we undertook a targeted inspection to check whether the Warning Notice we previously served in relation to Regulation's 11, 12, 17 and 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 had been met. At that inspection we found the regulations had been met. However, the overall rating for the service did not change following this targeted inspection and remained requires improvement.

We use targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or 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.

Why we inspected

This focused inspection looked at the key questions, safe, effective and well led, and was carried out to provide an up-to-date rating for the service. At this inspection we found improvements found at the last inspection had been sustained and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

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 based on the findings of this inspection.

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

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.