Hillcroft House is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 43 people. At the time of our inspection there were 36 people living in the home, most of whom were living with varying levels of dementia.People’s experience of using this service and what we found
We found concerns at our last inspection and rated the home requires improvement in two key questions and overall. We also found a breach of the Health and Social Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. At this inspection we found that the provider was no longer in breach and had made the necessary improvements.
People told us they felt safe and we observed they were at ease in the company of the staff that cared for them. People were protected from the risk of potential harm; safeguarding policies and processes were in place and staff had received appropriate training.
Risks to people were regularly assessed with measures in place to mitigate them. This included timely referrals to healthcare services. Safe management of medicines was in place.
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.
There were sufficient safely recruited staff on shift to meet people’s needs. The provider was actively recruiting additional staff but in the meantime was using preferred agency staff, where required, to maintain safe staffing levels. We have made a recommendation about staffing.
Despite recent changes in the leadership in the home, staff were clear on their roles and responsibilities. Morale and the culture in the home was good, staff said the interim management arrangements the provider had taken had settled the home and staff felt supported in their role.
Governance systems supported the provider and management team to identify shortfalls in the home and address them. Processes were in place to learn lessons when things had gone wrong with actions taken to reduce future incidents happening.
Overall, the home was clean and hygienic with good infection control procedures carried out. Staff wore appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). We noted that some parts of the home were in need of attention and this was addressed during our inspection. The management team shared the provider’s programme of scheduled works which included improving the décor and layout of the home to benefit the people living there.
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 28 April 2020) and there was a breach 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 improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of the regulation.
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.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe and Well-led which contain those requirements.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Hillcroft House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.