Northlands Care Home (Northumberland)

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence. At our last assessment we rated this key question Inadequate. At this assessment the rating has changed to good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 71 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, well-being and communication needs with them. A staff member commented, “I am involved in pre-admission assessments before people move in, so I am aware if a person has any additional needs.” Staff told us there were effective systems in place to assess and monitor people’s needs. This included handover meetings between incoming and outgoing staff on shift, staff meetings or and daily huddle meetings. A staff member commented, “Communication is much better, and we work as a team.”

At the last assessment the service failed to ensure people’s nutrition and hydration needs were monitored effectively and met. At this assessment improvements had been made. There was effective recording and monitoring of people’s nutritional and fluid intake, with specialist advice obtained in a timely way, including for modified diets. A staff member commented, “Record keeping has improved, staff are more inclined to escalate concerns e.g. about eating and drinking, they escalate any concerns quickly.” Staff at the service planned and effectively delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They now did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

The service worked well across teams and services to support people. Since the last assessment the provider and staff team had worked cooperatively with local authority stakeholders to an agreed action plan in order to make the required improvements. Information was available to help ensure people’s needs were met if they moved between services, as a concise passport was provided, to help ensure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved, for example to hospital.

Staff at the service supported people to manage their health and well-being to maximise their independence, choice and control. The service supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support. Records included specialist advice and guidance, that had been obtained where people had additional support needs, such as, from the speech and language therapist or mental health team. People told us they were supported to access health care. A person commented, “The doctor is coming tomorrow, he comes every week. Nothing goes amiss, I have seen the chiropodist and the eye specialist.”

Significant improvements had been made to the monitoring and improving of outcomes for people to ensure their safety and an improved quality of life. Staff routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves. Care plans were personalised to ensure outcomes could be met in ensuring people received safe and effective support. There was a monthly evaluation of risk assessments and people's care plans, to ensure they accurately reflected people's needs, with appropriate guidance for staff about the support people needed. Reviews were carried out regularly to ensure people's support and outcomes were monitored.

Some improvements had been made to records regarding people’s capacity and consent. The service told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment. For example, consent to flu jabs or vaccinations, we saw consent had been obtained. However, we discussed with the manager the further improvements needed to ensure records captured all the relevant others involved in Best Interest decision making, where people no longer had the mental capacity to give consent. The manager told us this would be addressed.