Archived: High Lee Care Home

Updated 30 November 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 team consisted of two inspectors.

The CCG were conducting an announced inspection of medicines practices at the home when we arrived. This was part of a voluntary scheme the service had signed up to. We had a discussion with the pharmacist in attendance, and they agreed to share their findings with us during the inspection.

Service and service type

High Lee Care Home 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.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed all the information we held about the service, including previous inspection reports and notifications the provider is required to send us about certain incidents. We used information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections. We contacted the local authority and Healthwatch to ask for any information they held about the service. 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 of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with five people who used the service and four members of staff. We also spoke with the registered manager and deputy manager.

We looked at three people’s care records in detail, and other records relating to people’s care. We reviewed the systems and policies in place to monitor and improve quality in the service, and reviewed recruitment, training and staff supervision and support processes to ensure they had remained good.

After the inspection

We asked the registered manager to send some more information to help support our judgements and received this in a timely way.

Updated 30 November 2019

About the service

High Lee Care Home is a rurally placed residential care home providing accommodation and personal care to 12 people at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 17 people. The accommodation is arranged over two floors, with a stair lift to help make the upper floor accessible to people.

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

People said they were safe living at High Lee, and there were systems in place to ensure their safety and well-being. One safeguarding alert needed to be made as a result of a medicines error, and we made a recommendation about acting on feedback from an external audit of medicines safety. We found medicines administration and storage was mostly safe, but some concerns were raised about the quality of support and advice the service received from the pharmacy supplying medicines.

There were sufficient, safely recruited and well trained staff deployed at all times. Staff said they were well supported by the management team. People enjoyed the meals served at High Lee, and were able to make suggestions about what they wanted to see on the menu. Peoples’ health and well-being was maintained with the support of a range of other health professionals as needed.

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 and people got on well, and peoples’ choices and preferences were known and respected. Diverse needs were understood and met, and there was no evidence people experienced discrimination based on characteristics such as their age, gender, cultural background or sexuality.

Care planning was person centred and responsive to changes in people’s needs, with people and their families kept up to date with any changes or incidents. Complaints and concerns were acted on robustly, and the service received compliments for the quality of its care, especially when looking after people at the end of their lives. People had access to activities which they were involved in planning.

There were robust processes in place to monitor and drive improvements in the quality of care, with people and staff supported to share feedback as an integral part of this. The management team made improvements based on research and training they undertook, and health professionals gave very good feedback about the quality of care.

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 13 April 2017).

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.