About the service Kippingtons Nursing Home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to up to 55 people. The service provides support to older people living with age related frailties, physical disabilities and people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 44 people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People received their medicines by nurses who were trained and competent to administer them safely. Staff mostly practiced good infection control to help protect people from the COVID-19 pandemic, however, a nurse was not seen to wash their hands between administering medicines to people. The registered manager addressed this concern during the inspection.
People’s health risks were mostly assessed and managed safely. One person who was at risk of choking did not have a suitable risk assessment and care plan in place to eat safely. We raised our concerns with the registered manager, who made an appropriate referral to the speech and language therapy (SaLT) team and reviewed the person’s care records during the inspection. Other people who were at risk of choking had risk assessments in place, their meals were at the correct consistency and staff knew how to support them to eat safely.
People told us they felt safe and were comfortable to speak with staff or management if they had any worries or concerns. One person told us, “I would tell one of the carers, they always listen.” Staff received safeguarding training and understood their duty to prevent and report potential abuse.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People told us they were able to make choices and did not feel restricted. One person said, “I lead a fairly free life here.” Visitors were welcomed inside the service or people could go out with them as they pleased.
People and their relatives gave positive feedback about the staff. One relative said, “They are really exceptional, not patronising but patient and nice.” A person told us, “The staff are nice, and they are kind, they do know me well.”
People, their relatives and staff told us they felt comfortable to make suggestions or complain if needed, they were confident the management team would deal with any problems. Relatives told us staff and management kept them up to date with changes to their loved ones.
Staff and the management team worked closely with health and social care professionals to improve people’s care, safety and well-being.
Quality assurance processes were effective in identifying areas for improvement. The management team devised a home improvement plan to address any shortfalls and continually learn and develop the service.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 6 April 2021).
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted, in part, due to concerns received about the provider’s approach to visiting, responding to concerns and risk of a closed culture. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine the concerns across a range of Caring Homes services. We received concerns in relation to people’s nursing care needs. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
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.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.