Seymour House-Northwood

Updated 21 October 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.

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

One inspector undertook this inspection.

Service and service type

Seymour House-Northwood 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

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection and from the local authority. This included information received about the provider and the provider’s other service. 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 took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the registered manager, the deputy manager and a senior care worker. We also spoke with five relatives and one healthcare professional who were visiting the people who used the service. We reviewed a range of records. This included three people’s care records and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures and medicines systems.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate the evidence we found. We spoke with the relative of a person who used the service and five health and social care professionals who had recently worked with the service.

Updated 21 October 2021

About the service

Seymour House-Northwood is a care home for older people, some of whom may be living with the experience of dementia. The home accommodates up to 36 people residing in single bedrooms with en-suite facilities. There were 35 people living at the home when we inspected. There are two lounges, a dining room, a quiet room and a large garden area. The home is operated by the provider Seymour House Residential Care Homes Limited. The provider also operates another care home for older people in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.

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

Systems to monitor the quality of the service had not always been effective as they had not enabled the provider to identify and take timely action to address some of the issues we found.

Relatives told us they felt people were safe. Relatives and adult social care professionals consistently spoke positively about the service and the caring approach of staff. One relative told us, “I would want someone to treat me the way they treat my [family member].”

People received their medicines as prescribed, although some medicines records were not always up to date. There were arrangements in place for preventing and controlling infection. We signposted the registered manager to additional resources to inform their approach to promoting COVID-19 vaccinations to staff.

There were procedures in place to ensure the provider only employed fit and proper people to provide care and support.

The service worked in partnership with other agencies to support people’s needs.

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 (published 18 March 2021).

Why we inspected

We undertook this targeted inspection in response to specific risks we had found at the provider’s other care home. These included concerns about providing safe care, adult safeguarding, supporting people with wound care and the management and governance of that service. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those issues at Seymour House-Northwood. We inspected and found there was a concern with the governance of the service so we widened the scope of the inspection to become a focused inspection which included the key questions of safe and well-led.

CQC have introduced targeted inspections to follow up on Warning Notices or to check specific concerns. They do not look at an entire key question, only the part of the key question we are specifically concerned about. Targeted inspections do not change the rating from the previous inspection. This is because they do not assess all areas of a key question.

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 changed from good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the well-led section of this report. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Seymour House-Northwood on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.

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.