Archived: Netherton Green Care Home

Updated 16 June 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Our inspection took place over two days 22 and 23 March 2017 and was unannounced. The inspection was conducted by two inspectors and a specialist advisor with experience in nursing. Our inspection team also included four experts 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. The experts by experience had personal experience of supporting people who lived with dementia.

We asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. Due to technical problems a PIR was not available and we took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report. We reviewed information we held about the service. This included notifications received from the provider about deaths, accidents/incidents and safeguarding alerts which they are required to send us by law.

We requested information about the service from the Local Authority who have responsibility for funding and monitoring the quality of the service. We received information from them which we used as part of the inspection of this service.

We spoke with 19 people, 17 relatives, 10 members of staff, three nurses, three unit managers, the recently appointed acting manager who was covering for the absence of the registered manager and two area managers. We looked at the care records for nine people, the recruitment and training records for four members of staff and records used for the management of the service; for example, medicines management, accident records and records used for auditing and monitoring the quality of the service.

We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

Updated 16 June 2017

The inspection took place on 22 and 23 March 2017 and was unannounced. The service had been registered with us previously and was rated as requires improvement. There has been a change to the provider’s legal entity and this was the first inspection since this service was re-registered in January 2017.

Netherton Green Care Home is registered to provide accommodation and nursing support for up to 120 older adults with a variety of health conditions including dementia. The home is a purpose built building and consists of four separate single storey buildings each accommodating up to 30 older people. The four units are called Saltwell, Darby House, Windmill House and Primrose. On Windmill House, nursing care was provided to people who lived with dementia and 27people

were in occupancy. Primrose provided care for people who lived with dementia and 29 people were in occupancy. On Darby House palliative nursing care was provided and 27 people were in occupancy. Saltwell provided intermediate/rehabilitation nursing care and 26 people were in occupancy. This is a step down support unit for people discharged from hospital who were not ready to return to their own home.

On the day of our inspection there were a total of 109 people living in the home. A acting manager had recently been appointed and was managing the home with the support from an area manager in the absence of the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act (2008) and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People felt safe in the service and staff knew how to ensure their safety as they had received the appropriate safeguarding training. Sufficient staff were not always available to support people appropriately. People were administered their medicines as prescribed as the gaps we had identified on the medicines administration record was due to recording errors.

While the provider was aware of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 they did not ensure people were supported in the least restrictive way. Staff had regular training to ensure their knowledge was up to date. Staff were able to get support in the way of regular supervision and the opportunity to attend regular staff meetings. People were able to decide what they had to eat and drink. People were able to access healthcare from external professionals where needed.

While people felt staff were mainly kind and caring we found some inconsistencies in the actions from staff where they did not demonstrate they were always kind and caring. However we found that people’s privacy, dignity and independence was being respected. People were not always supported to make choices.

While staff had access to equality and diversity training, people’s cultural needs were not being met in a consistent way. People were not able to access their care plan or assessment documentation consistently and where reviews took place people were not being involved on a regular basis. People’s likes and dislikes were not being considered as part of the activities being made available. The provider had a complaints process to enable people to make a complaint but complaints made were not being managed consistently.

The provider’s care records were not consistently up to date or accurately reflected the support people received. The provider did not ensure they notified us where a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards application had been approved by the supervisory body.

People were able to share their views on the service by way of completing a questionnaire. The provider ensured the appropriate spot checks and audits were taking place on the service, but the checks were not always effective.