Lavender Fields

Updated 2 June 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

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type

Lavender Fields 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

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We also contacted Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection-

We spoke with three people who use the service and five relatives about their experience of the care and service provided. We spoke with eleven staff members including the registered manager, care and compliance manager, divisional support manager, quality auditor, maintenance person and care staff. We observed activities being undertaken and lunch being served.

We reviewed a range of records including safeguarding, accidents and incidents and health and safety checks. We looked at five people’s risk assessments, care plans and daily notes and multiple medication records. We reviewed four staff files in relation to recruitment, training and supervision.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data, meeting notes, cleaning schedules, quality improvement plans and a range of audit records.

Updated 2 June 2021

About the service

Lavender Fields is a care home providing personal care for up to 75 older people and people living with dementia in one purpose-built building. There were 54 people living in the service at the time of inspection. The accommodation is arranged over three floors with 25 rooms on each floor. People had their own rooms with ensuite bathrooms.

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

People told us, and their relatives agreed, that they felt safe living in the service. One relative said, “Yes, she is very safe, I am very grateful”. Risk assessments and care plans were thorough and up to date and provided staff with enough detail to support people safely. People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse and received safe care and treatment. There were enough staff to meet peoples’ needs. The home was clean and uncluttered. Medicines were managed in line with national guidance. Lessons were learned when things went wrong.

Peoples’ care and support was personalised to meet their individual needs and people told us they had been involved in planning their care. Staff were knowledgeable about the people they were supporting. Staff had received training to equip them for the role. One staff member told us, “I feel I have had enough training, if I needed more, I know I could have more”.

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. People told us they were treated with dignity and respect and we saw that peoples’ privacy was maintained.

People told us that the quality and variety of food was inconsistent. This has been fed back to the registered manager in residents and relative’s meetings at the start of the year, but there had been no sustainable improvement. The provider had plans in place to improve this.

The range of activities had been limited during COVID-19 and relatives told us this has impacted on peoples’ wellbeing. The registered manager was aware of this and had an action plan in place to address these concerns.

Quality assurance processes were in place to monitor the service. Staff and relatives told us that the manager was approachable, and staff were confident that action would be taken if they raised concerns.

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 4 September 2019) and there were multiple 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 enough improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.

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.

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.