Nightingales Care Home

Updated 21 December 2018

The inspection:

• We carried out our inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. Our inspection checked whether the provider was 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.

Inspection team:

• Our inspection was completed by two inspectors.

Service and service type:

• Nightingales Care 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 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. 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 the time of our inspection, a manager was registered with us.

Notice of inspection:

• Our inspection was unannounced.

• The inspection site visit occurred on 27 November 2018.

What we did:

• Our inspection was informed by evidence we already held about the service. We also checked for feedback we received from members of the public, local authorities and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). We checked records held by Companies House, the Food Standards Agency and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

• We did not ask the service to complete a Provider Information Return. This is information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

• We spoke with two people and observed other people’s care.

• We spoke with the registered manager, administrator and three care workers.

• We toured the building and grounds.

• We reviewed two people’s care records, a personnel file, audits and other records about the management of the service.

Updated 21 December 2018

About the service:

• The service is in a residential area of Maidenhead and close to the River Thames.

• The service provides accommodation and personal care to older adults, some of whom have early stages of dementia. The care home can accommodate 17 people in one adapted building.

• This is the only location that the provider operates. The provider is part of small group of care homes.

• At the time of our inspection, 12 people used the service.

People’s experience of using this service:

• The provider had made a significant investment in the equipment, building and premises since our last inspection. This had improved the environment for people who used the service.

• Infection control and prevention had improved, to protect people from avoidable harm.

• The service had satisfactorily mitigated the risks associated with the premises.

• People continued to like living at the service.

• There was a homelier atmosphere because the adaptation and the decoration of the service was changed.

• People continued to receive care from friendly, dedicated staff who knew them well.

• Appropriate governance processes were in place to ensure quality care for people.

• The registered manager provided good leadership to the staff and was considered an integral member of the team.

• The service met the characteristics for a rating of “good” in the key questions we inspected. Therefore, the overall rating for the service is now “good”.

• More information is in the full report.

Rating at last inspection:

• At our last inspection, the service was rated “requires improvement”. Our last report was published on 28 September 2018.

Why we inspected:

• This inspection was to follow-up enforcement action we took against the provider after our last inspection. This was because we found continued breaches of the regulations. At this inspection, we checked whether the provider made improvements following our previous enforcement.

Follow up:

• We made a recommendation about the redecoration and provider engagement. We will check the provider’s response at our next inspection. We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that people receive safe, compassionate and quality care. Further inspections will be planned for future dates.