Gloucester House

Updated 10 December 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

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors

Service and service type

Gloucester House 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 had a manager who had not yet registered with the Care Quality Commission, the application was in progress. This means that the provider was legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

The inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection including submitted action plans. We received feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information we require providers 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 spoke with four people and one relative about their experience of the care provided and observed the care two other people received in their room. We spoke with one nurse, five care staff, an activity coordinator, a maintenance person, the manager and deputy manager.

We reviewed eight people’s care plans. We also looked at records relating to the management of medicines, health and safety records and key policies and procedures. We reviewed two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at records of meetings, training data, quality assurance records and infection control audits. We spoke with four relatives who gave us their views on the service.

Updated 10 December 2020

About the service

Gloucester House is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for older people and people living with dementia. The service can support 54 people across four different units, called 'villages'. Each village has its own facilities such as a small lounge and ‘café’. There were 41 people living in the service at the time of inspection. Many people required nursing care and were living with dementia or had diabetes. Some people had complex nursing needs such as a tracheostomy, which was in place to help them to breathe, and others had a tube into their stomach as a means of providing nutrition when they were not able to take food by mouth. Some people were cared for in bed, some needed help with moving around and others were able to mobilise independently.

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

There were some areas of the service that needed to improve. When these areas had been identified during inspection, the manager started to put measures in place to improve straight away. The manager demonstrated how these improvements would be sustained.

People told us they felt safe in the service. A relative told us, “My mother feels very safe and so do we”. Staff were aware of people's needs and how to keep them safe.

People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse. Risks to health and safety had been managed and people received safe care and treatment. Sufficient staff were deployed and safe recruitment practices were in place. Medicines were managed safely in line with national guidance. Infection was prevented and controlled. Lessons were learned when things went wrong.

The manager promoted an open-door culture where people, relatives and staff felt they could speak to them at any time and they would be listened to. A relative told us, “The managers are visible”. Relatives and staff were mainly positive in their comments about the management team.

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 09 December 2019) and there were two breaches 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 regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 10,11,12 September 2019. Breaches of regulation 12 and 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment and good governance.

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.

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 coronavirus and other infection outbreaks effectively.

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 Gloucester House 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 inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.