Archived: Summerfield House Nursing Home

Updated 16 September 2015

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check 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.

This inspection took place on 30 July 2015 and was unannounced.

The inspection team consisted of four adult social care inspectors and an expert by experience in dementia care. An expert-by-experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the home. This included notifications from the provider and speaking with the local authority contracts and safeguarding teams. Before the inspection, we did not ask 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.

On the day of our inspection we spoke with 20 people who lived at Summerfield House Nursing Home, eight relatives/visitors, three nurses, one senior care worker, nine care workers, one chef, the handy person, two housekeepers, two activities co-ordinators, the deputy manager and registered manager.

We spent time observing care in the lounges and dining rooms and used the Short Observational Framework for Inspections (SOFI), which is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people using the service who could not express their views to us. We looked around some areas of the building including bedrooms, bathrooms and communal areas. We also spent time looking at records, which included ten people’s care records, four staff recruitment records and records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 16 September 2015

We inspected Summerfield House Nursing Home on 30 July 2015 and the visit was unannounced.

Our last inspection took place on 10 April 2013 and, at that time, we found the regulations we looked at were being met.

Summerfield House Nursing Home is a 106-bed purpose built service and is registered to provide accommodation and personal care for older people and people living with dementia. Nursing care is provided. At the time of our visit there were 99 people using the service.

Summerfield House Nursing Home is a is a purpose built care home with nursing situated approximately 1.5 miles from Halifax town centre. The accommodation is arranged over three floors. All of the bedrooms are singles with an en-suite toilet, some also have a shower. There are lounges and dining areas on each floor.

The service has a 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.

Although people told us they felt safe we found we found when people had reported missing property staff had not followed the procedure to ensure a thorough investigation.

Recruitment processes were not robust as thorough checks were not always completed before staff started work to make sure they were safe and suitable to work in the care sector.

There were enough staff on duty to make sure people’s care needs were met and activities were on offer to keep people occupied and stimulated. We saw people enjoying a book club meeting and music for heath session during our visit.

Staff told us they felt supported by the manager and that training opportunities were good. People and relatives we spoke with told us they liked the staff

The home is well appointed, well maintained and comfortably furnished. People’s bedrooms were personalised and we found everywhere was clean and tidy.

We found people had access to healthcare services and these were accessed in a timely way to make sure people’s health care needs were met. The medication system was well managed and people received their medicines at the right times.

On the day of our visit we saw people looked well cared for. We saw staff speaking calmly and respectfully to people who used the service. Staff demonstrated they knew people’s individual preferences and what they needed to do to meet people’s care needs.

We found the service was meeting the legal requirements relating to Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

People told us the meals were good. There was a choice available for each meal and the chef was aware of people’s preferences.

Visitors told us they were always made to feel welcome and if they had any concerns or complaints they would feel able to take these up with the manager.

We saw there were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service. When areas for improvement were identified action was taken to address the shortfalls. People using the service were asked for their views and the registered manager was in the process of responding to their requests.

We found two breaches of regulations and you can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.