A Purley care home has been rated Outstanding overall by the Care Quality Commission following an inspection in November 2017.
Highfield House, in the London Borough of Croydon, has been rated Outstanding for being well-led, effective and responsive and Good for being safe and caring.
Highfield House, which can accommodate up 45 people, specialises in providing care for people who are medically highly dependent due to their complex physical and or neurological disorders. At the time of CQC’s inspection 37 people were using the service.
Residents, relatives, staff and healthcare professionals felt that the management team were approachable and interested to hear from them about their experiences and any suggestions they might have. There was an obvious drive and commitment within the team to provide high quality personalised care.
Healthcare professionals were very positive about the quality of service delivery and joint working arrangements and felt that staff were driven to improve and develop their practice. Staff worked in partnership with other agencies, this included liaison with their local NHS trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups and the local authority.
Staff were passionate about their roles and about working at the home and were keen to share with inspectors their experiences of Highfield House and were proud of the work they did. They stayed up to date with and delivered care, support and treatment in line with best practice guidelines. This included guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and Royal College of Physicians. The management team organised for authors from recently published guidance to come to the service to speak to staff and families about the new guidance available.
There was a comprehensive training programme in place and robust processes to ensure staff were competent to undertake their allocated tasks. Training ‘drop in sessions’ were held daily for staff to update their knowledge on the provider's mandatory training topics as well as 'skills sessions' held for staff to update their clinical knowledge. There was also a staff newsletter which was themed on the five CQC key questions - in a bid to further enhance understanding about how the care they provided fitted into these and the provider's values.
Care was person-centred and met people's individual needs. Assessments were regularly undertaken to review those needs and any changes in the support they required. Staff had caring relationships with residents and were aware of people's preferred name and their preferences in how they were supported. They were aware of residents’ communication methods and provided them with any support they required to communicate, including technology, in order to ensure their wishes were identified and they were enabled to make decisions and choices about care.
Debbie Ivanova, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, said:
“Highfield House is an excellent example of how to provide quality care. It is forward looking, innovative and caring."
“I was particularly impressed with the passion shown by staff and management. The management team organised for the authors of recently published guidance to come to the service to speak to staff and families about the new guidance available – an excellent way for staff to be kept up to date with the cutting edge quality care developments.”
You can read the report in full on our website.
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Highfield House is an excellent example of how to provide quality care. It is forward looking, innovative and caring.
Debbie Ivanova, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care