Updated 12 January 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 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
The inspection was completed by one inspector.
Victoria House 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 had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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 the inspection the registered manager was on a period of planned extended leave. Therefore, deputy manager was temporarily managing the service and will be described in this report as the manager.
Notice of inspection
We gave a short period of notice for the inspection because we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
What we did before the inspection
Before the inspection we reviewed the information, we had about the service, including previous inspection reports, registration reports and notifications. Notifications are information about specific important events the service is legally required to send to us. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.
We used all of this information to plan our inspection.
During the inspection
We spoke with eight people who lived at Victoria House and four family members about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with one housekeeper, two care staff, the activities coordinator and one catering staff member. We also spoke with the manager and head of care. We carried out observations of people's experiences throughout the inspection.
We viewed the environment, looked at medicines management systems and records, recruitment records for three staff and assessed how the home was managing infection prevention and control. We looked at five people’s care plans, individual risk assessments and daily records of care that had been provided for people.
After the inspection
We continued to seek clarification to validate evidence found. We reviewed additional information provided by the manager. This included a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including accident and incident records and policies and procedures, audits and information about staff training and support were reviewed.
We spoke with a further four care staff and with five health and social care professionals. We spoke with the providers nominated individual, the registered manager and clarified further information with the manager. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.