3 January 2024
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Speirs House is a care home providing personal and nursing care for up to 36 people. At the time of our inspection, there were 33 people receiving support with personal care. The service supports older people living with dementia and having nursing needs. The home is arranged over 1 floor.
People's experience of using this service and what we found
Although staff knew how to identify and report abuse, some safeguarding incidents at the service were not escalated in a timely manner to keep people safe. This was a breach of Regulation 13.
There was a lot of change for the better made at the service since our last inspection. However, more improvement was needed to oversee the quality of care being provided. Although staff's recruitment was safely undertaken, the DBS checks were not repeatedly carried out to check staff's fitness for the job. We made a recommendation about this.
Records in relation to the mental capacity assessments and people's cultural and religious needs required reviewing. A new system for monitoring staff's performance on the job is to be implemented by the provider.
People felt safe because staff knew their care needs well. The staff team was stable and there was enough staff to meet the needs of the people they supported. Risk assessments were in place to guide staff on how to mitigate the potential risks to people. People received their medicines as prescribed. Staff were aware of how to effectively manage risks associated with infection control.
The home environment felt welcoming. Staff effectively shared information within the team to support people's well-being. Staff felt well supported in the job and received training relevant to their role.
There was a stable management team at the service to monitor the care being delivered to people. People told us they had effective communication with the management team. Staff were caring and kind to the people they supported, and their choices were adhered to.
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 requires improvement (published 28 June 2022) and there was a breach of Regulation 17 (Good governance). At this inspection enough improvement had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of Regulation 17 (Good governance). However, we found a breach of Regulations13 (Safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment).
You can read the report from our last inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Speirs House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service and when the service was last inspected.
This was a focused inspection and the report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Effective and Well-led. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.
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 request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.