Holmwood Care Home

Updated 27 September 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of this inspection, we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was undertaken by 2 inspectors on site and 1 working from an office and an inspection planner who made calls to families.

Service and service type

Holmwood Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Holmwood Care Home is a care home providing personal care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations. At the time of our inspection there were 2 registered managers in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we held about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 5 people residing at the home and 8 relatives about their experiences of care received. We also spoke with 9 staff, the registered manager, the operations director, the business director, the maintenance manager, the catering manager and 2 professionals. We reviewed care plans and risk assessments, medicine records, health and safety records, 4 recruitment files and the providers policies and procedures.

Updated 27 September 2023

About the service

Holmwood Care Home is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 21 people aged 65 and over. At the time of the inspection there were 20 people living at the home.

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

People and their families told us that they felt they lived in a “real home”, and they felt people were supported well.

There were enough staff to support people in a caring and person centred way. We saw call bells were responded to quickly.

There were audits in place to review the care of people. The provider reviewed the care audits to ensure they learnt from them.

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.

The service was led by the provider and management team in a responsive way. They acted immediately to any areas of concern raised during the inspection and drove improvements.

Staff recruitment was not always in line with current legislation. We discussed this with the registered manager and the business director, and they took immediate steps to address this.

Issues were found with fire risk management. The registered manager and the business manager took immediate steps to address this during the inspection.

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 28 May 2020).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part by notification of an incident where a person using the service sustained a serious injury and an incident where someone who was put at risk. The information shared with Care Quality Commission (CQC) about these incidents indicated potential concerns about the management of risk. This inspection examined those risks.

We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe and Well-led only.

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.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last focused inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Holmwood Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.