South Collingham Hall

Updated 3 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 was carried out by two inspectors and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

South Collingham Hall 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. At the time of our visit the registered manager was not working at the service. The service was being overseen by another manager who had applied to be the registered manager.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

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 reviewed information we held about the service such as notifications. These are events which happened in the service that the provider is required to tell us about. We sought feedback from the local authority who monitor the care and support people received and Healthwatch Nottinghamshire. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people living at the service. We spoke with the manager, the assistant manager and thirteen members of the staff team. We also spoke with a healthcare professional visiting at the time of our inspection. We observed support being provided in the communal areas of the service. We reviewed a range of records about people's care and how the service was managed. This included five people's care records and associated documents including risk assessments and a sample of medicine records. We looked at records of meetings, both for the staff team and the people using the service, staff training records and the recruitment checks carried out for a new staff member employed since our last visit. We also looked at a sample of the providers quality assurance audits the management team had completed.

After the inspection

The manager provided us with further evidence to demonstrate compliance with the regulations.

Updated 3 December 2019

About the service

South Collingham Hall is a care home providing personal care and accommodation for up to 33 people. There were 24 people using the service at the time of our inspection.

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

The manager had developed a comprehensive auditing process to check the quality of service being provided. These audits enabled them to monitor all areas of the service being provided and make any necessary changes to the benefit of the people living there.

People were provided with a safe place to live. Shortfalls identified at our last inspection regarding the environment had been addressed. People felt safe living at South Collingham Hall and risks to people had been identified, assessed and managed. Staff were aware of how to keep people safe from avoidable harm and any concerns were appropriately reported. People received their medicines as prescribed and staff had received the training they needed in order to provide people with their medicines in a safe way. The service was clean and odour free and staff followed the provider's infection control policy. Appropriate recruitment processes were followed to make sure suitable numbers of staff were available to meet people’s needs. The manager made sure lessons were learned when things went wrong to continually improve the service provided.

People’s needs had been assessed prior to them moving into the service and plans of care had been developed for staff to follow. The staff team had been provided with the training they needed to enable them to meet people’s individual and diverse needs. People were supported with their nutritional needs and supported to eat and drink well. Staff made sure people were supported to access the relevant healthcare professionals when they required it.

Improvements had been made to the environment, providing people with a comfortable place to live. We saw curtains were missing in the main lounge area, plans were in place to address this. People’s rooms were personalised and there were places available for people to meet with others or to be alone.

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.

Staff were kind and caring, and treated people with respect. People were involved in making decisions about their care and their consent to care was always obtained. The staff team treated people in a dignified way.

Comprehensive plans of care had been developed and these had been monitored regularly. Staff knew people’s care and support needs well and had the opportunity to be involved in the care planning process. People knew how to make a complaint and were confident their concerns would be listened to and addressed. People’s wishes at the end of their life had been explored and followed.

The staff team felt supported by the manager and their thoughts on the service were sought. People and their relatives were asked for their opinion of the service through day to day conversations, meetings and the use of surveys. The manager worked in partnership with others to provide people with the care and support they needed.

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 inadequate (published 29 April 2019) and there were three breaches of regulation.

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

This service has been in Special Measures since 29 March 2019. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating and carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.

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.