Archived: Thurleston Residential Home

Updated 15 July 2021

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 Care Act 2014.

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

This inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type

Thurleston Residential Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means the provider is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We called the service to announce our inspection visit one hour before the inspector arrived. This was to ask the service for specific information regarding COVID-19 and to ensure we were working within the provider’s own COVID-19 and infection control procedures.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We visited the service on 12 May 2020. The remainder of the inspection was carried out remotely, away from the service.

We received feedback about the service from relatives and staff. We spoke with one person who used the service. We also received feedback from five people’s relatives and five staff members, including the deputy manager, domestic staff and senior care staff.

We reviewed a range of records including the full care plans for three people. Plus, a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits and quality assurance were reviewed. We also reviewed records relating to medicine administration and monitoring, staff training and three staff recruitment files.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found.

Updated 15 July 2021

About the service

Thurleston Residential Home is a residential care home in one adapted building and can provide personal care for to 37 older people. At the time of the inspection 28 people were using the service. Some of these people were living with dementia and the service does not provide nursing care.

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

There had been changes in the management of the service since our last inspection. The key questions Safe and Well-led were rated good at our last inspection. At this inspection, Well-led remained good but Safe had deteriorated from good to requires improvement.

Staff informed us they had been trained and understood their responsibilities in keeping people safe from harm and abuse and records in staff files confirmed this information. However, the service was unable to locate the service safeguarding policy and there was no safeguarding log of reported safeguarding incidents. We did see records that safeguarding incidents had been reported to both the Local Authority and Care Quality Commission in 2020.

Risks to people were assessed and actions to reduce the risks had been recorded in peoples care plans which were reviewed and updated every month or as the result of incident.

Sufficient staff were on duty which meant staff were available when people needed support and staff were recruited safely. People’s health care and nutritional needs were assessed and met. 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.

People received their medicines when they needed them. Medicines management was monitored on a daily basis and relatives informed us they had no concerns about people receiving their medicines as prescribed. However monthly auditing of medicines management was not being recorded.

The current infection control systems in place reduced the risks to people.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 13 March 2020).

Why we inspected

We inspected due to the recent swift changes in management at the service.

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 coronavirus and other infection outbreaks effectively.

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 remains good. This is based on the findings at this inspection. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Safe and Well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Thurleston 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.