Archived: Hemsworth Park

Updated 1 October 2022

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

On the first day of the inspection there were two inspectors and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. One inspector was present on the second day.

Service and service type

Hemsworth Park is a ‘care home’. 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.

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced on the first day. On the second day we gave the service short notice of our visit to enable the management team to be available to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed all the information we held about the service including past inspection reports and information in notifications the provider is required to send us. We asked for feedback from the local authority and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We reviewed care records relating to four people, including risk assessments, care plans and medicines records. We spoke with the registered manager, area manager, and seven staff. During the inspection we spoke with 14 people and six visiting relatives. We looked at records relating to the running of the home and spent time in communal areas observing staff practice and people’s activities.

After the inspection

We requested some additional information to review remotely, including documents to support the safe running of the service.

Updated 1 October 2022

About the service

Hemsworth Park is a residential care home providing personal care to 62 people at the time of the inspection. The service is registered to provide personal and nursing care for a maximum of 93 people. It is split into four separate units within one building. One unit was not being used at the time of our inspection.

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

People and relatives said care staff supported them safely. Staffing levels were sufficient to ensure people received prompt support and staff attention overall, although some people did not feel they had enough choice over how they spent their time. People enjoyed the additional interaction by the service’s activities ‘magic moments’ team. Staff were recruited safely, although there were some minor recording matters which were addressed. Staff felt they had sufficient training to support people safely. Staff had appropriate knowledge of safeguarding people from abuse and were confident to raise concerns with management or local authority safeguarding team.

Infection, prevention and control processes were in place. Staff mostly worked in line with good guidance, although at times, staff adjusted their face masks without regard to IPC procedures. Most areas were clean and well maintained, although some items were need of more thorough cleaning, such as dining room chair arms, pressure cushion covers and a carpet on one unit. Proof of lateral flow testing was not requested from inspectors on the first day of the inspection, although this was promptly addressed.

Care plans were informative, although some information was conflicting at times, or of variable quality, such as for oral care, end of life care, specific health conditions and equipment needed to support individuals.

People were supported with regular drinks and additional supplies were encouraged throughout the heatwave. Staff monitored people’s fluid intake, although the amounts recorded needed to be more accurate. We had some initial concerns around how drinks containing thickening agent were prepared, although the provider addressed these immediately. The provider said training would be carried out as soon as this was available.

Equipment was checked for safety and staff knew what people needed to support their safe moving and handling. Where equipment was identified as being unsuitable for people, the provider took action to ensure this was addressed.

People felt they received safe support with their medicines overall. Some people said they had to be woken at night time to have medicines if the staff were running late. The provider was considering ways in which guidance for staff could be improved for people who needed ' as required' medicine. The provider responded promptly where recording issues were identified.

Quality assurance systems were in place and there were regular checks carried out. Where audits identified actions to improve, communication about this was shared with staff. Not all quality checks were robust enough to identify issues found on inspection. The registered manager gave assurance they would consider how these could be make more thorough. There was a lack of attention to important detail on some recording of people’s care, such as dates, times, and frequency of repositioning. Recording of care and support needed to be more detailed and meaningful in places. For example, people’s personal evacuation plans were all very similar, yet there were specific factors, such as if a person smoked, or had poor eyesight, that were not detailed. The provider promptly took action to address this.

Equipment was checked for safety and staff knew what people needed to support their safe moving and handling. Where equipment was identified as being unsuitable for people, the provider took action to ensure this was addressed.

Staff roles and responsibilities were clear. Staff understood the lines of accountability and knew who to refer to with any queries or concerns. Staff said the management team were very approachable and they were confident in their teamwork. People and relatives were confident in how the service was run overall. They found the registered manager to be visible and welcoming and they felt involved and included in the delivery of care.

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 20 February 2020) and there were breaches of regulations. 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 some improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations. However, there were some areas still in need of improvement, not identified by the provider, which they addressed promptly.

The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has not been rated more than requires improvement for the last six rated inspections.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

The provider took prompt action to address the matters raised at the inspection, and made some immediate improvements.

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

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well led sections of this report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Hemsworth Park on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good. We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.