The Hawthorns Care Home

Updated 22 December 2020

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 coronavirus, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control practice was safe and the service was compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place.

This inspection took place on 3 december 2020 and was unannounced.

Updated 22 December 2020

About the service: The Hawthornes Care Home is a care home providing personal and nursing care to 23 people with physical and mental healthcare needs including some people living with dementia. At the time of the inspection 21 people were receiving care and support.

People’s experience of using this service:

People living at The Hawthornes Care Home accessed an extensive activity programme, and were encouraged to go on trips and attend events. The service was working with a local school as part of ‘The Peter pan project’ to encourage intergenerational learning and social inclusion. This was offering people an opportunity to learn about technology, share common interests and was designed to encourage school children to foster meaningful relationships with others. Staff showed kindness and compassion and placed value on their caring role and involvement in people’s lives. People were offered a choice of meals and staff closely monitored people assessed to be at risk of poor food and fluid intake.

The service had completed an end of life care accreditation to ensure people received high standards of care and support, and were involved in the planning of their care at that stage of their life. The service had very good working relationships with the local GP practice and palliative care service.

The service worked in partnership with people and their families, and encouraged feedback on the care provided. We received consistently positive feedback from people, their families and friends about the staff and service received. Staff told us they enjoyed working at The Hawthornes, and spoke highly of the support and encouragement provided by the registered manager.

People had their care and support needs met by sufficient numbers of suitably trained staff. The care environment was clean and comfortable throughout, with risk management plans in place. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The service had good governance arrangements in place, and completed internal quality checks and audits. Findings from these were regularly reviewed by the provider.

Rating at last inspection: The Hawthornes Care Home was rated Good in all five key questions at the last inspection. The report was published September 2016.

Why we inspected: This was a scheduled, comprehensive inspection, completed in line with our inspection schedule for services rated as Good.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor this service and will reinspect in line with our schedule for those services rated as good.