Archived: Spurfield House Residential Home

Updated 3 March 2015

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.

The inspection took place on 26 and 28 November and was unannounced. The inspection team consisted of two inspectors on the first day and one inspector on the second day.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.  Before the visit we examined previous inspection reports and notifications we had received. A notification is information about important events which the service is required to tell us about by law.

During the inspection, we spoke with the registered manager, five staff and four of the nine people living at Spurfield House. We spoke with two people from a local organisation who run community activities, which people living at Spurfield House are involved in. After the inspection, we spoke with a person who commissions care for people living at Spurfield House, a GP who people at Spurfield are registered with, and a health care professional who provides them with mental health support.  We also spoke with two family members of a person living at Spurfield House. 

We reviewed three care records and medicine administration records for people at Spurfield House.

Updated 3 March 2015

The inspection took place on 26 and 28 November 2014 and was unannounced.

The service was previously inspected on 10 December 2013 and was found compliant with all the regulations inspected.

Spurfield House Residential Home provides accommodation and personal care for up to eleven adults with an enduring mental health condition. Some people had lived there for a number of years while others had been living there for less than a year. The home also provides short term respite care, although at the time of our inspection, there were no people staying for respite. People were physically able but needed support with aspects of personal care at times. Staff support was provided at the home at all times and most people required the support of a member of staff when they went out.

People's needs were assessed and individual care plans were developed. However some of the care records did not accurately reflect the latest risk assessments which meant that people were at risk of not receiving the right care. Some daily notes did not always show whether the actions identified in the care plan had been undertaken. The registered manager said that this had been identified in a recent audit undertaken by a senior manager and an action plan was being drawn up to address the issues.

People said they liked living at Spurfield House and that they felt safe and happy. Staff supported people to go out to activities, including one person visiting the hairdressers, another person going to a local church group and several people shopping in the local area. Staff responded to people's physical and mental health needs and supported these needs by liaising with other health and social care professionals, including a person's GP. Where there were concerns about a person's capacity, staff took appropriate actions to ensure they were assessed. 

Action was also taken when needed, to address any issues with the physical environment of the home. For example, the provider had taken appropriate action to ensure people's safety when they identified issues with the roof of the home.  This included erecting barriers to protect people and arranging for repairs to be undertaken until the roof could be retiled. 

Where there were concerns that a person may have been abused, the registered manager reported the concerns and worked with the local safeguarding team to protect the person.

Staff appeared relaxed, calm and friendly when working with people in the home and supported them to be independent, where this was possible. People said they were encouraged to have friends and family to visit. One person said that they were able to lay on a private buffet at Christmas time for their family which helped them remain in touch with them.  Staff and people also organised a party for all the people, their friends and relatives as well as staff just before Christmas.  Staff and people living at the home ate meals together and chatted about what they had been doing. 

There was a registered manager in post. 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. People living at the home, staff working at the home and visiting professionals said that the manager was very good in their role and communicated well with them.  The manager had developed strong links with the local community, which had led to people living at Spurfield House being able to get involved in village events.

The registered manager and staff were able to describe the vision and values of the provider, to promote and encourage people to live fulfilled lives as independently as possible whilst living in a safe environment.

Staff were supported with training and supervision.  This included training and support when they first joined the home as well as on-going training to help them undertake their role more confidently.  This included specific training around individual people's needs, such as diabetes. Staff were also supported to undertake nationally recognised qualifications.

There were systems in place to monitor the quality of care delivered.  These included checks by staff and managers as well as quality assurance processes.  Senior Staff communicated with the registered manager regularly and also undertook visits to the home and audits of staff practice. This meant that there were systems in place to monitor the care provided and support improvements.

We found a breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010 in relation to record keeping. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of this report.