Highfield Residential Home

Updated 10 May 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection visit took place on 12 March 2018 and was unannounced. The inspection team consisted of one inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is someone who has experience of caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

When planning our inspection, we looked at the information we already held about the provider. This included any notifications they had sent us. These contain details of events and incidents the provider is required to notify us about by law, including unexpected deaths and injuries occurring to people receiving care. We reviewed the information provided to us by the home in their Provider Information Return (PIR). The PIR is a document that the home sends to us to inform us how they are currently meeting standards and future improvements they intend to make. These help us to plan our inspection.

During our inspection visit we spoke with eight people who used the service and one relative. We spoke with the registered manager, two assistant managers and two members of care staff.

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.

We sampled four people's care plans and looked at the arrangements for their medicines. We sampled records used by the provider to manage the service such as their audits, infection control practices, maintenance of equipment, handover information and daily records. We looked at accident records, falls logs, complaints, menus and surveys. Staff information was sampled to include; two staff files, induction processes and rotas.

Updated 10 May 2018

This inspection took place on 12 March 2018 and was unannounced.

Highfield Residential Home 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.

The care home accommodates up to 15 people in one adapted building and provides care to older people some of whom are living with dementia, and or physical or sensory disabilities. At the time of our inspection there were 13 people living at the home.

There was a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are 'registered persons'. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

At our previous inspection of this home in August 2016 we found improvements were needed in three of the five key questions. At this inspection we found that the provider had made improvements so that people received care that met their needs.

People said they felt safe and staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse or harm and how to report this. Staff knew the risks people faced in relation to their health conditions and how to support people with these. People were complimentary about the availability of staff and the provider practiced safe recruitment with the required checks carried out before staff started work.

People received their medicines on time from staff who had been trained to administer these safely. There were processes in place to ensure the premises and equipment were regularly checked and to manage the prevention and control of infection. The manager reviewed accidents and falls to ensure people had the right support to keep them safe.

Staff had effective support, supervision and training to develop the skills needed to care for people effectively. People told us they enjoyed the meals and we saw staff offered people hot and cold drinks throughout the day. People were supported to access health professionals when they needed. Staff supported people to have maximum choice and control of their lives in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service support this practice. The provider was improving the premises and facilities. To ensure these were suitable to meet the needs of the people who used the service further consideration of signage and colour schemes to help people orientate themselves was needed.

People were very complimentary about the caring approach of staff. They said they were kind and considerate. We observed caring and friendly relationships between people and staff. We saw people’s dignity and privacy was respected and they were supported to express their views about the care they received. There were examples of a compassionate response to people’s emotional needs.

People told us they had choices and made decisions about their care needs and that staff respected these. People were particularly complementary about the social opportunities available to them. They had access to a range of community based activities of their choosing, with access enhanced by use of the provider’s mini bus. Staffing was planned so that people had one to one support with their social events. People's care was centred on them and they had been involved in this process. There was clear system in place to manage complaints which were investigated and responded to.

The management of the home had improved with a full management team now in place. People spoke very positively about the management style being open and friendly. The registered manager had improved their oversight of the service and was carrying out regular checks to ensure people experienced good outcomes. Quality assurance audits needed some minor strengthening to ensure the provider was looking at all aspects of the service. There were links with other agencies to gain advice and share best practices to improve the quality of care to people. People’s views on the service were sought and staff were confident the provider’s improvement to the service would continue such as the extension currently being built.