Archived: Kippingtons Nursing Home

We found that the provider had taken action in carrying out environmental risk assessments for some areas of the home to protect people against the potential safety risks these posed. However, we saw that equipment had continued to be stored in communal bathrooms and saw no evidence of a risk assessment for this trip hazard.

We found that the provider had taken action to ensure the service had sufficient numbers of suitably qualified staff to meet people's needs.

We also carried out a routine inspection to check that essential standards of quality and safety referred to on the front page were being met. We sometimes describe this as a scheduled inspection.

We looked at the home's recruitment practices and we found that appropriate checks had been completed before new staff started working for the home. This ensured that that people were cared for, or supported by, suitably qualified, skilled and experienced staff.

We also reviewed the home's complaints system and found that the provider did not have an effective complaints system available.

We found that the provider had taken action to address the previous identified concerns and that most people we spoke with recognised that the provider had made improvements since our last inspection.

We found that the provider had taken action to involve people who used the service and/or their representatives in making decisions about their care. Action had also been taken to provide activities that met people's needs and preferences.

Although the majority of people we spoke with told us that they were happy living in the home and we saw examples of people being appropriately supported; some of the people who used the service, staff and relatives we spoke with raised concerns that there were not always enough staff to attend to people's needs. Most of the concerns centred on the availability of staff to promptly assist people who needed to access the toilet, and how quickly staff answered call bells.

Whilst some improvements had been made in the home's record keeping, we found that people's daily care records were not consistently maintained to demonstrate that people who used services were always receiving safe and appropriate care.