Amesbury Abbey Care Home

Updated 18 September 2020

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

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type

Amesbury Abbey Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a 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 did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. A registered manager and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided. There was an interim manager employed by the provider, we will refer to them as the manager throughout the report.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we wanted to check about COVID-19 at the service before we visited.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. 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 reviewed a range of records. This included five people’s care records and multiple medication records. We looked at five files in relation to recruitment. A variety of records relating to the management of the service including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We carried out telephone calls following our visit to the home and spoke with six people, six relatives and nine members of staff to hear their views on the care and support provided. We contacted four professionals for their feedback about the service. We spoke with the manager and the nominated individual on the telephone. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

We also contacted Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England.

Updated 18 September 2020

About the service

Amesbury Abbey Care Home is a nursing home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 45 older people. The home has accommodation over three floors accessed by a lift and stairs. There are communal rooms for people to use and substantial gardens. At the time of our inspection there were 33 people living at the service.

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

The provider had taken action to make sure the hot water outlets were safe. Valves had been fitted so that the hot water temperatures were regulated safely. The provider regularly checked the temperatures to make sure they were safe.

Regular safety checks for other areas were also carried out such as fire alarms, moving and handling equipment and emergency lighting checks. External contractors were employed to service appropriate equipment.

People had their medicines as prescribed. We have made a recommendation about ‘as required’ medicines. Staff had their competence to administer medicines safely checked.

People were living in a home that was clean and the provider had systems in place to minimise infections. Staff had been trained on infection prevention and control and how to use personal protective equipment (PPE) safely. There was stock of PPE available to staff and visitors.

Staff had been trained on safeguarding and knew how to report any concerns. People told us they felt safe living at the service. People’s risks had been identified and there were risk management plans in place. These were reviewed regularly by the nursing team.

The provider recruited staff safely making sure they carried out the necessary pre-employment checks. Staff had opportunities for meetings and welfare supervisions where they could discuss any concerns or worries.

There was no registered manager at the service but there was sufficient management cover. An interim manager was in place and additional managers employed by the provider were also based at the service. The provider was very visible at the home daily. People, relatives and staff knew who to approach with any concerns and were confident these would be addressed.

Quality monitoring was completed checking all areas of the service. Any identified improvements were allocated to staff to complete. The provider monitored the actions needed to make sure work was completed in a timely way. People’s views were sought and action taken as a result of any feedback.

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 27 June 2019).

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 regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 14 January 2019. A breach of legal requirement was found. The provider completed an action plan after that inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve hot water safety at the service.

We carried out a focused inspection on 21 May 2019 to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they were meeting legal requirements. We found not enough improvement had been made and the service remained in breach of legal requirements.

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.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. 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 Amesbury Abbey Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.