Altham Court Care Home

Updated 28 October 2022

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.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was completed over two days, with one inspector attending both days. On the first day a Specialist Advisor and an Expert by Experience also attended. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Altham Court Care Home 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. Altham Court Care Home is a care home with nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

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. The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 12 people who use the service, and five relatives about their experiences of the care provided. We spoke with two external health and social care professionals who were involved in people’s care at the service. 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 spoke with 10 members of staff including nursing staff, care staff, a chef, a domestic cleaner, a maintenance person and the registered manager. We reviewed a range of records. This included nine people’s care records and multiple medicine records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including staff training records, policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection we continued to seek clarification from the nominated individual to validate evidence found. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

Updated 28 October 2022

About the service

Altham Court Care Home is a residential care home providing regulated activities personal and nursing care, to up to 48 people in one adapted building. The service provides support to older and younger people and those with a physical disability. At the time of our inspection there were 38 people using the service.

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

People were protected from abuse and staff understood their responsibilities and ways to report any concerns of abuse to the registered manager. However, Care Quality Commission (CQC) were not notified about one case of abuse between people.

People’s risks around environment, care and treatment, medicines and other factors were understood and addressed by staff.

Staff told us and rotas identified a shortfall in staffing at times, however people told us they did not feel impacted by this.

Medicines were managed safely.

Infection prevention and control was generally effective and where an issue was identified with staff not wearing face masks correctly, this was promptly addressed by the registered manager.

Incidents and complaints were handled correctly by the registered manager.

Where documentation had not been completed fully by staff, the management team addressed this in clinical staff meetings.

The provider and management team were committed to improvement at the service. Audits were completed and feedback was sought from people, relatives and staff to identify what improvements could be made.

The registered manager and provider understood their responsibilities to be open, honest and apologise if things went wrong.

There was a positive culture at the home. Staff told us they felt supported by the management team.

People were supported in a person-centred way.

The management team worked in partnership with others well.

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.

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 11 January 2022) and there were breaches of regulations. 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 and warning notices had been lifted.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check whether the Warning Notice we previously served in relation to Regulation 12 and Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 had been met and also concerns we received about staffing. The overall rating for the service has not changed following this focused inspection and remains requires improvement.

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.

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 remained as 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 Altham Court Care Home 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.