Southlands is owned by BUPA Care Homes (GL) Ltd. The home is a large converted Victorian building situated within walking distance of Harrogate town centre. Southlands offers residential, nursing, respite and day care facilities for up to 68 people. All bedrooms have en-suite facility. A range of communal areas were available. This includes a number of lounge areas, coffee room, bar area, ballroom and a library. There is a large landscaped garden which contains a vegetable patch and an aviary.
The home employs a registered manager who had worked at the home for over eight years. 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.
The service was not consistently safe. Although most of the people we spoke with told us that they felt safe people told us they had concerns regarding staffing levels at the home. People described staff working non-stop. We saw that on one occasion staff took 20 minutes to respond to someone who had called for assistance. We observed throughout the day that care staff were consistently busy with care tasks. There was a shortage of staff due to sickness. We have asked the provider to review their system to replace staff at short notice when unplanned shortfalls occur such as covering staff sickness.
Robust recruitment and selection procedures were in place and appropriate checks had been undertaken before staff began work. This included obtaining references from previous employers to show that staff employed were safe to work with vulnerable people.
Staff we spoke with understood how to make an alert if they suspected anyone at the home was at risk of abuse. Training had been given to staff about safeguarding procedures.
We identified issues with required medicines. On two of the three floors we found there were discrepancies in two people’s prescribed as necessary (PRN) medication. This meant that people did not always receive their medication as prescribed by their doctor.
Safety checks were carried out within the environment and on equipment to ensure it was fit for purpose. We found that the main open plan lounge/dining area was sometimes cold and people told us that they were cold during one of our visits. We have asked the registered provider to make improvements.
Staff followed the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 to ensure that people’s rights were protected where they were unable to make decisions for themselves.
People were provided with nutritious food. Although several people made negative comments about some of the meals. Assistance and prompting was given by staff where necessary to assist people. Adapted cutlery and crockery were available to people for them to use to help maintain people’s independence.
Staff were seen to be attentive and kind to people and they respected people’s individuality, privacy and dignity.
Care plans we looked at were up to date. Risks to people’s health and wellbeing had been identified. These risks were being monitored and reviewed which helped to protect people’s wellbeing. People’s physical health was monitored. This included the monitoring of people’s health conditions and symptoms, so that appropriate referrals to health professionals were made.
Activities were available to people on a daily basis as the home employed an activities co-ordinator. We observed various activities taking place during our visit to the home.
We received information from Healthwatch. They are an independent body who hold key information about the local views and experiences of people receiving care. CQC has a statutory duty to work with Healthwatch to take account of their views and to consider any concerns that may have been raised with them about this service and none were raised .We also consulted the Local Authority to see if they had any concerns about the service. They had carried out a visit in March 2014, where a number of recommendations were made regarding record keeping, mental capacity assessments and staff training. A follow up visit from the Local Authority established that all recommended improvements had been implemented and were sustained by the provider. The Local Authority confirmed they had no concerns with the home.