Archived: Wickham Hall

Wickham Hall is an extra care housing scheme for older people, comprising of 35 individual flats in one large building, located approximately a mile from Wigan Town Centre. The building contained large communal areas on the ground floor and an onsite restaurant. People who lived at the service had separate care and tenancy agreements.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided. At the time of our inspection, the service supported 26 people with personal care.

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

People told us they felt safe living at Wickham Hall and were supported by staff who knew them and with whom they had or were developing good working relationships. Enough staff were deployed to meet people’s needs, provide agreed support and keep them safe. Accidents and incidents had been documented, with action taken to prevent a reoccurrence. Staff had received training in safeguarding and knew how to identify and report concerns. People received support to manage their medicines by staff who had been trained and assessed as competent.

Staff received sufficient training and supervision to carry out their roles effectively. Assessments were completed prior to people’s admission, to ensure the service was suitable. 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.

Care files contained detailed information about the people who used the service and how they wished to be supported. People told us they were directly involved in their care and support and deciding what they did each day. People were supported to complete social and recreational activities in line with their wishes, albeit the current COVID-19 pandemic had impacted on what people could safely do at present. People told us they had no complaints or concerns but had been provided with details on what steps to take, should they need to.

The service had a clear management system in place. Due to the registered manager currently being responsible for other services owned by the provider, day to day management of Wickham Hall was the responsibility of the service leader. Staff and people spoke positively about the service leader and the support they provided. Both the service leader and registered manager were reported to be open, honest and approachable. A range of systems and processes were used to monitor the quality and effectiveness of the service. Actions had been identified and added to the home’s continuous improvement plan, which was regularly reviewed.

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 25 March 2020) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 28 February 2020 when breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment and good governance.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe, effective, responsive and well-led which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. 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 Wickham Hall 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.

Wickham Hall is an extra care housing scheme for older people, comprising of individual flats in one large building. The scheme had some communal areas, and an onsite restaurant. People who lived at the service had a separate care and tenancy agreement. At the time of our inspection, the service supported 16 people with personal care.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.

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

People did not always receive their medicines in line with best practice guidance. Medicines monitoring systems were not robust to monitor shortfalls. People’s risks were not effectively assessed and recorded to reduce the risk of avoidable harm. People and their relatives told us they were safe. People told us they received their care visits as planned. The registered manager had followed safe recruitment procedures.

People’s care records were not adequately completed to demonstrate their needs, risks, preferred outcomes and how these would be met. They were not always reviewed to show changes in people’s needs. Staff supported people with meaningful day time activities and to maintain contact with their local community. People's individual communication needs had been assessed however, this was not consistent. The registered manager had a complaints management policy however, procedures on how to raise complaints were not visible or shared with people.

The governance and quality checks at the service did not consistently promote safe delivery of care. The registered manager and the provider needed to improve the quality monitoring systems and systems for seeking people’s feedback about their experiences. People were positive about the staff team and the support they received.

Staff had received regular training. People told us their care and support had been planned in partnership with them and their relatives however, care records did not show how people’s consent was sought. We made a recommendation about this.

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 were positive about the service and said staff were kind and caring. People were treated with dignity and respect and their right to privacy was upheld. People were comfortable in the company of staff.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 20/02/2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on our inspection schedule.

Enforcement:

We have identified breaches of regulation in relation to risk management, record keeping, medicines management and good governance at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

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.