Archived: Kenwith Castle Country House Care

Updated 23 October 2019

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 completed by one inspector.

Service and service type

Kenwith is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. This service also provides care [and support] to people living in specialist ‘extra care’ housing. Extra care housing is purpose-built or adapted single household accommodation in a shared site or building. The accommodation is bought and is the occupant’s own home. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for extra care housing; this inspection looked at people’s personal care [and support] service.

Notice of inspection

We gave 24 hours’ notice to the extra care housing aspect of this service, so we could ensure staff and people would be available to speak with. No notice was given to the care home, this part of the inspection was unannounced

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. 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 to two people and one relative of a person using the extra care housing. We also spoke with one member of staff from this team. We spoke with 10 people who lived at the care home plus one person who was there for a short break. We also spoke with two relatives, and a visiting healthcare professional. We spoke with 10 staff including the registered manager, deputy manager, care workers, housekeeping and catering staff.

We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

We reviewed a range of records including six people’s care plans and daily notes plus their medication records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment, staff supervision and training. We also viewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, audits and checks to ensure the environment was safe and well maintained.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records. We sought feedback from with two professionals who regularly visit the service.

Updated 23 October 2019

About the service

Kenwith Castle Country House Care (Kenwith) is a residential care home providing support and personal care for up to 59 people. It also provides personal care to people living in their own cottages and bungalows within the grounds of the care home. At the time of the inspection there were 52 living in the residential home and two people receiving care within their own homes on site of the care home.

The care home is an adapted building with accommodation on two floors. There are extensive grounds with lakes. Within the grounds there are a number of self-contained and privately own bungalows and cottages. People living in these have access to care and support if they wish. Only two people were using this service for personal care at the time of the inspection.

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

People who lived in the care home and people who received a service of personal care within their own home were very positive about all aspects of the service. People were particularly complimentary about the cleanliness of the home, the quality of meals and snacks available and the range of activities and outings available to them.

People were at the heart of the service; their views and requests were fully considered and actioned.

The service were highly responsive to people’s needs and wishes and went the extra mile to ensure activities and outings were meaningful.

The leadership of the servcie was extremely effective, ensuring best practice was used. They also shared best practice, publishing articles and being involved in projects across agencies to achieve the best outcomes for people.

People were protected because the service had robust recruitment processes. They ensured staff had training in understanding abuse and risk assessing to keep people safe.

People were supported to have a balanced diet, enjoy exercise and keep healthy. Staff worked in conjunction with other healthcare professionals to achieve good health outcomes for people.

Staff were skilled at understanding people’s communication needs and this helped people to make their views known by various ways.

There were sufficient staff with the right skills and support to ensure people’s needs were met safely and effectively. Training was seen as key to ensuring a skilled workforce.

There were robust and highly effective quality assurance systems in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service provided.

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.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was Good (published February 2017)

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.