Archived: Parkhill Lodge

Updated 5 March 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the registered provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This comprehensive inspection took place on 24 January 2018 and was unannounced. The inspection was carried out by an adult social care inspector.

To help us to plan and identify areas to focus on in the inspection we considered all the information we held about the service. We also asked the registered provider to complete a provider information return [PIR] which helped us to prepare for the inspection. This is a document that asks the registered provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and any improvements they plan to make.

We spoke with nine people living at Parkhill Lodge and spent time observing people going about their daily lives throughout the day. We also looked round the home’s facilities, including five people’s rooms, communal areas and bathing facilities.

We spoke with the registered manager, the deputy manager, a senior care worker, a cook, the handyperson and a care worker. We also requested the views of professionals who were involved with supporting people who lived at the home, such community nurses. We contacted Healthwatch Rotherham. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

We looked at three people’s care files, as well as records relating to the management of the home. This included minutes of meetings, medication records, three staff files and quality and monitoring checks carried out to ensure the home was operating to expected standards.

Updated 5 March 2018

Parkhill Lodge is a care home providing residential care to people with learning disabilities. 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. The service is situated on the outskirts of Maltby, with some local facilities, such as shops and pubs, nearby. The home can accommodate up to 22 people. At the time of the inspection 20 people were living at the home.

At the last inspection, in November 2015 the service was rated ‘Good’ across each of the five key questions. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for ‘Park Hill Lodge’ on our website at www.cqc.org.uk’. At this inspection we found the service remained Good. However, improvements were required regarding areas such as updating policies and procedures and making sure shortfalls found when checks were made were addressed in a timely manner.

The service had a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons.’ Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. As the manager was also registered for two other council care homes they were supported by a deputy manager, who organised the day to day running of Parkhill Lodge.

We found the service continued to assess, plan for and meet people’s individual and changing needs, and people were involved in making decisions about their care and support.

Staff had a clear understanding of safeguarding people, and care and support was planned and delivered in a way that ensured people were safe, without restricting their freedom. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

The service continued to provide safe care. Staffing arrangements had been recently adjusted to ensure there were sufficient numbers of staff available to keep people safe and the staff recruitment process continued to be robust.

Staff were trained and supported to develop their skills and provide people with the standard of care they required.

Medication was managed safely and administered by staff who had completed appropriate training.

People were supported to receive a healthy diet and they had access to relevant healthcare services when they needed to.

People's privacy, dignity and independence were maintained by staff who were caring and respectful, and knew the people they supported very well. Care and support was delivered in a person centred way that focussed on meeting each person’s individual needs, aims and aspirations.

There were systems in place to continuously assess and monitor the quality of the service. This included obtaining people’s views and checking staff were following the correct procedures.

There were areas of the home that needed attention. Checks carried out had identified these and actions plans formulated, but timescales were not provided due to the future of the service being under consideration. However, urgent shortfalls were being addressed and there had been no negative impact on people living at the home.

Policies, procedures and other information used to inform people using the service and staff about how it intended to operate had not been reviewed regularly to ensure they were up to date.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.