Consort House Nursing Home

Updated 14 December 2019

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.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of one inspector, one assistant inspector, one specialist advisor for older person’s nursing care, and one expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using services or cares for someone who is older.

Service and service type

Consort Nursing Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as 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.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We looked at statutory notifications the provider had made to us about important events. In addition, we reviewed all other information sent to us from members of the public and stakeholders, such as the local authority.

We also 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 contacted the local authority commissioning team and Healthwatch Plymouth for feedback about the service. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. Healthwatch held no information about the service.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

During the inspection we spoke in detail with 12 people and relatives, three care staff, one team leader, two housekeeping staff, the chef, two nurses, the deputy manager, the registered manager and provider.

We looked at five care plans for people who used the service, minutes of meetings, training records for all staff, various medicines administration records, and auditing and monitoring checks.

We spoke with two health care professionals for their views about the service.

Updated 14 December 2019

About the service

Consort House Nursing Home is a nursing and residential care home. It is registered to provide accommodation and personal care and accommodation for up to 58 older people. The service supports people with nursing needs, physical disabilities, mental health and/ or dementia. At the time of the inspection there were 47 people living at the service.

The service is on three floors, with access to upper floors via a shaft lift. All bedrooms have en-suite facilities. There is an outside garden area.

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

People lived in a service which had a strong, visible person-centred culture. People were at the heart of the service. Staff were motivated to deliver high quality care by the providers embedded values of: “compassion, care, competence, communication, courage, and commitment”. People told us staff were very kind and caring, and they were treated with dignity and respect.

People told us they felt safe living at the service. Overall, people and relatives told us there were enough staff to meet their needs, however others, including staff felt there needed to be more. The registered manager and provider had taken pro-active action to improve staffing numbers, and retention but stressed this was an ongoing area that required improvement.

We therefore recommend, as part of the providers overall governance framework, they listen to people and staffs continued feedback about staffing levels and act as required.

People told us they felt staff had the skills and experience to meet their individual needs and staff were complimentary of the training and support they received.

Assessments of people's needs were comprehensive, expected outcomes were identified and care and support, was regularly reviewed. The service worked with agencies to ensure people’s care and support needs were met and co-ordinated.

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.

People who had risks associated with their care, had these managed consistently and safely. People lived in a service which was clean and free from odour, and the environment was assessed for risks. The design and decoration of the service took account of dementia best practice, and people’s bedrooms were personalised.

People were highly complimentary of the food, and people’s nutritional likes, and dislikes were known and catered for. People were encouraged and empowered to keep active and socially stimulated.

People and relatives felt confident to complain, and to speak with the registered manager at any time. There was an open culture where by all safety concerns which were raised were valued and used as learning and improvement.

People had care plans in place regarding their health and social care. Care plans were individualised, so staff knew how people wanted and wished their care and support to be delivered. People’s medicines were managed safely, and they received them as prescribed. People were supported with dignity and compassion at the end of their life.

People and staff told us the service was well managed. Staff were proud and motivated to work for the organisation. There was constructive engagement with staff, and people who used the service to ensure a safe and quality service.

The registered manager and staff engaged positively with stakeholders to help build seamless experiences for people. External professionals and stakeholders were positive about the management and leadership of the service, and of their proactive engagement.

Since our last inspection, a new governance framework had been created to help effectively identify where improvements were required.

The registered manager and provider were highly passionate about continuous development and admitted when things went wrong, which demonstrated the requirements of the Duty of Candour (DoC), to be open, honest and transparent.

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 Good (Published 18 May 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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