Chester Court

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

Well-led – this means we looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open, fair culture. At our inspection we rated this key question requires improvement. At this inspection the rating has changed to good. This meant the service was consistently managed and well-led. Leaders and the culture they created promoted high-quality, person-centred care.

This service scored 68 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service had a shared vision, strategy and culture. This was based on transparency, equity, equality and human rights, diversity and inclusion, engagement, and understanding challenges and the needs of people and their communities. New staff received support and training which helped them to demonstrate the provider’s values in their daily work with people. A staff member commented, “My induction was fantastic, the values of Barchester were clear.”

The service had inclusive leaders at all levels who understood the context in which they delivered care, treatment and support and embodied the culture and values of their workforce and organisation. Leaders had the skills, knowledge, experience and credibility to lead effectively. They did so with integrity, openness and honesty. The registered manager had made several improvements to the running of the service. People, staff and professionals were complimentary about them. People, relatives’, staff members’ and professionals’ comments included, “The home has become a much safer, open and coordinated home with what appears good systems of communication, happy staff and safe happy residents with reassured families”, “The manager is approachable, we see her every day” and “There is good teamwork, we all support each other, with a whole home approach.”

The service fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard. Processes were in place for staff and people to speak up. The provider had a clear whistle blowing policy. Staff could raise concerns, and written information was available of how to do this. Staff meetings took place, and staff had the opportunity to share comments and give feedback. Staff and people said they had confidence in the management team and would not be afraid of raising any concerns. A staff member commented, “We are encouraged to report any concerns, it is always followed up.” A person told us, “Staff listen, I am able to say what I think.”

The organisation valued diversity in their workforce. They work towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who work for them. Staff told us they were able to ask for reasonable adjustments to be made to their working patterns for specific needs, for example to incorporate family commitments.

Improvements had been made by the registered manager to ensure governance was more effective and robust, including the monitoring of the quality-of-service provision. The service had clear responsibilities, roles, systems of accountability and better governance. They used these to manage and deliver good quality, sustainable care, treatment and support. They acted on the best information about risk, performance and outcomes, and shared this securely with others when appropriate. Regular audits and checks were carried out in the main areas of the service, such as, around care records, health and safety and staff practice. Audits showed action was taken where areas of improvement were identified. However, some audits such as for medicines management and other areas identified during our inspection needed to be more robust and more frequent, and to ensure timely follow up of actions.

Staff at the service understood their duty to collaborate and work in partnership, so services work seamlessly for people. They share information and learning with partners and collaborate for improvement. A health care professional commented, “At our weekly multi-disciplinary meeting (MDT) we discuss resident management plans, in a timely manner so we can agree a plan of action, this may involve me or some of the nurses involving other colleagues such as the GP, geriatrician and pharmacist. Teamwork is very important; I see evidence of this weekly and we have de-briefing sessions.”

The service focused on continuous learning, innovation and improvement across the organisation and local system. They encouraged creative ways of delivering equality of experience, outcome and quality of life for people. They actively contribute to safe, effective practice and research. There was evidence of changes that had been made to the service to make improvements and to address checks and audits outcomes and in response to people and staff feedback. However, we identified further improvements were needed in areas as described in sections of the above report.