Background to this inspection
Updated
22 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.
Inspection team
The inspection team comprised one inspector and a specialist advisor in behaviours that may challenge.
Service and service type
Heathcotes Hembrigg 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.
Notice of inspection
We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because it is a small service and we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.
Inspection activity started on 18 June 2021 and ended on 5 July 2021. We visited the service location on 18 June.
What we did before the inspection
We reviewed information we had received about the service. The provider was 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.
During the inspection
We spoke with three people about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with six members of staff including the registered manager, manager and operations director. We spoke with one relative on the phone.
We reviewed a range of records that included two people’s care records, two people’s medicines records and training data for staff. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff training. We also reviewed rotas in the service.
After the inspection
We continued to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.
Updated
22 July 2021
About the service
Heathcotes (Hembrigg Park) is a specialist service supporting females with personality disorders to become more independent and learn new skills over a 12-month period. At the time of inspection there was five people living at Hembrigg Park.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People told us they felt safe and that staff were kind. People were encouraged and supported to maintain relationships and to access the community to prevent social isolation.
We observed staff wearing appropriate PPE at the service and adhering to the government guidelines around this.
Staff were recruited safely; all checks were completed to ensure they were safe to work with vulnerable people and there were enough staff to support people. Medicines were managed and administered safely.
The registered manager and staff had a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities and staff understood people’s needs. Quality assurance processes were in place. Regular audits and feedback were reviewed to ensure good standards were maintained, and where improvements were required, these were actioned. The management were aware the service needed renovation and plans were in place to complete 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; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.
The service was able to demonstrate how they were the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.
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 (5 October 2017)
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.
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 COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
We received concerns in relation to the management of medicines and staffing. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
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 has stayed the same. 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 Hembrigg Park 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.