Archived: Rothbury House Hotel

Updated 16 October 2018

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.

Inspection site visit activity took place on 28 September 2018 and was unannounced. One adult social care inspector carried out the inspection.

Before we visited the service, we checked the information we held about this location and the service provider, for example, inspection history, and statutory notifications. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send to the Care Quality Commission by law.

We contacted professionals involved in caring for people who used the service, including local authority commissioners and safeguarding staff and community nursing teams. We also contacted the local fire authority and Healthwatch to gather their views. Healthwatch is the local consumer champion for health and social care services. Information provided by these professionals was used to inform the inspection and our judgements.

We used information the provider sent us in the Residential Care Inspection Information Pack. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During our inspection we spoke with four people who used the service and two relatives. We also spoke with four ‘guests’ who were holidaying at the service. We observed interactions between people and the staff who worked there.

In addition to the registered manager, we also spoke with the deputy manager, seven members of care staff (including senior care), the administrator, the maintenance person and the staff member who transported people to various trips. We looked at the care records of five people who used the service and the personnel files for three members of staff. We also reviewed other information about the service, including health and safety information and records relating to the management and quality of the service.

Updated 16 October 2018

Rothbury House Hotel is a 33-bedded hotel with 20 rooms run by the charity The Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA) which provides short breaks to personnel (and dependents) predominantly from the Royal Air Force (RAF), but also from other armed forces.

Rothbury House Hotel is partly registered as a 'care home'. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single packages under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. The service is registered to provide care for up to nine people and at the time of the inspection, five people were receiving support.

This inspection took place on 28 September 2018 and was unannounced. This meant the staff and provider did not know we would be visiting.

We completed a full comprehensive inspection in December 2015 and rated the service ‘good’ overall with a breach of Regulation 11 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities), regarding the need for consent. We completed a focussed inspection in March 2017 where we followed up on the breach. At the focussed inspection we considered the provider had made some progress and had met the breach but we did not change the rating of the effective domain as we wanted to be sure that the changes made were sustained.

At this inspection we found the service remained ‘good’ and met all the fundamental standards we inspected against. We also found the effective domain of the report had improved to ‘good’.

This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection. Full detailed finding can be found in the last inspection report.

The service had a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC to manage the service. Like 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.

Staff at the service ensured people were at the heart of their care and support. People received a high standard of person centred care by the staff and management team who were reported to be exceptionally kind, caring and extremely considerate.

The registered manager understood their responsibilities with regard to safeguarding and staff had been trained in safeguarding vulnerable adults.

Accidents and incidents were thoroughly recorded, risk assessments were in place and appropriate health and safety checks were carried out.

Appropriate arrangements were in place for the safe administration and storage of medicines, including secure arrangements for people who looked after their own medicines.

There were enough staff on duty to meet the needs of people who used the service. The provider had an effective recruitment procedure in place and carried out suitable employment checks on the staff they employed. Staff were trained to meet people’s needs and received regular supervisions and appraisals.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives, and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. The policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People were complimentary about meals prepared. Kitchen staff ensured people had their dietary needs met.

Discussions with people and staff confirmed that external health care professionals were involved with people’s care during their short staff at the service should this be required.

Staff treated people with extreme dignity and utmost respect and helped to maintain people’s independence during their stay.

People’s needs were assessed before they came to stay at the service and care plans were written in a person-centred way. Person-centred means ensuring the person is at the centre of any care provided and that their individual wishes, needs and choices are taken into account.

Although there were no people staying at the service who required end of life care, staff told us they would work with healthcare providers if people wished to stay at this stage of their lives.

People were protected from social isolation during their stay with daily camaraderie, events and outings; and the service had good links with the local community. The service had their own transport to support trips out.

The service sought feedback on a regular basis and had received numerous positive comments and compliments. People told us they knew how to make a complaint if they needed to and a clear process was in place that was discussed with people on arrival at the service.

The provider had an effective quality assurance process in place. Staff said they felt supported by the management team.