Updated 26 June 2019
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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team:
The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector 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.
Service and service type:
The Cottage Christian is a care home that supports people with general nursing needs and in some cases people living with dementia where their general nursing needs are the priority. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided and both were looked at during this inspection.
The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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.
Notice of inspection:
The inspection site visit was unannounced. It started and ended on 4 June 2019.
What we did:
The provider submitted a provider information return (PIR) prior to this inspection. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
We also reviewed information we held about the service such as previous inspection reports and statutory notifications. A statutory notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to send us by law.
We asked the local authority, commissioners and Healthwatch for any information they had which would aid our inspection. We used this information as part of our planning. Local authorities together with other agencies may have responsibility for funding people who used the service and monitoring its quality. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion, which promotes the views and experiences of people who use health and social care services. No concerns were raised by the professionals we contacted.
During the inspection we spoke with seven people who lived at the home and two relatives. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. The registered manager was available throughout our inspection. We spoke with six members of staff which included nurses, care staff and the registered manager. We looked at two people's care and medication records, staff training records and records relating to the management of the home.