Archived: Kingston Farmhouse Care Home

Updated 22 May 2021

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 was conducted over two days by one inspector. Following the inspection, an assistant inspector made phone calls to people’s relatives.

Service and service type

Kingston Farmhouse Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a 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

We gave the service 18 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the people living in the service were prepared for our visit, to reduce the impact on their wellbeing.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection including previous inspection reports and notifications. Notifications are information about specific important events the service is legally required to send to us. We used the 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 used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with seven people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with five members of staff including the registered manager, senior care staff and care staff.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care records and four people’s medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including quality assurance records, audits and policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We spoke with four relatives. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service.

Updated 22 May 2021

About the service

Kingston Farmhouse Care Home is a care home and is registered to provide accommodation and personal care for up to nine people and predominantly supports people living with a learning disability. At the time of the inspection there were nine people living at the service.

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

People told us they enjoyed living at Kingston Farmhouse and they felt supported by staff who knew them well.

Staff had received training in safeguarding and understood their responsibilities. People were protected from abuse and there was an open culture, where staff supported people to express any concerns. People received their medicines safely and as prescribed. Appropriate arrangements were in place for obtaining, recording, administering and disposing of prescribed medicines.

Staff had received appropriate training and support to enable them to carry out their role safely. There were enough staff available to provide person centred care to people. Safe recruitment processes were followed, and people were involved in the process, to ensure they had a say in who worked in their home.

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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

This service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. The outcomes for people using the service promoted choice and control, independence and inclusion. People's support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to be involved in decisions about their own lives and gain new skills.

The provider had systems and processes to monitor quality within the home. The registered manager understood their regulatory responsibilities and shared information with stakeholders in a timely way.

There was a complaints procedure and people and their relatives knew how to complain and were confident that if they raised concerns, these would be acted on.

People, their families, staff and external professionals all told us that the registered manager was very supportive, and the home was well led.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 30 April 2019) and there were three breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led, which contain those requirements.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Kingston Farmhouse Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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.