Archived: Longlands

Updated 22 July 2015

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 on 24 June 2015. This was an unannounced inspection. The inspection team consisted of three inspectors.

Before the visit we looked at previous inspection reports and notifications we had received. Services tell us about important events relating to the care they provide using a notification. This enabled us to ensure we were addressing potential areas of concern. We spoke with local authority safeguarding and contracts teams.

We spoke with 7 of the 21 people who were living at Longlands. We also spoke to one person's relative. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

We spoke with three care workers, a domestic worker, the home's cook, two nurses, the manager and a consultant engaged by the provider. We looked around the home and observed the way staff interacted with people.

We looked at seven people's care records, and at a range of records about how the home was managed. We reviewed feedback from people who had used the service and their relatives.

Updated 22 July 2015

We inspected Longlands on 24 June 2015. Longlands provides nursing care for older people over the age of 65, some people were living with dementia. The home offers a service for up to 35 people. At the time of our visit 21 people were using the service. This was an unannounced inspection.

We last inspected in February 2014. The service was meeting all of the required standards at that time.

There was not a registered manager in post on the day of our inspection. A new manager had been appointed by the provider, whilst this person was transferring between services they had not taken on fully management responsibilities for Longlands. 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 were not always supported with their social and well being needs. People told us there was not always things to do in the home. There was no activity programme in place, and people's hobbies and interests had not always been recorded or encouraged and supported.. This often led to people being agitated or anxious as their needs were not always being met. There were enough staff to assist people, however, nursing and care staff were not always organised to make best use of their time.

People were not always cared for in a clean environment. People's bedrooms were not always clean and the equipment they needed had not always been kept clean.

Nursing and care staff showed genuine care for people when assisting them with their care or helping them with their meals. Most staff knew the people they cared for and had the time to talk with them.

People were supported to make day to day decisions about their care. People and their relatives views on their care was not always recorded and sometimes choices were not always available around food and drink.

People told us they felt safe. People were supported to take their medicines as prescribed. There were enough staff to assist people however nursing and care staff were not always organised to make best use of their time.

Staff told us they felt supported, however not all staff had received training and supervision to enable them to meet people's needs. The provider had not always ensured checks were made to ensure staff were of good character at recruitment.

The provider had systems in place to monitor the quality of the service people received. However, these were not always effective or being utilised to drive improvements. The new manager was working with a consultant and a senior nurse to bring about improvements to the service.

We found five breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.