Updated 26 February 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 checked 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 10 November 2014 and was unannounced. At our inspection in July 2014, we had found breaches of the regulations of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 asked the home to make improvements in the care and welfare of people, the safeguarding of people, the management of medicines, the safety, staffing and the suitability of premises. We also asked for improvements to supporting workers, the assessing and monitoring of the quality of service provision and in records.
Because this comprehensive inspection was as a follow-up to that of July 2014, we had not asked the provider to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR), which 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. We viewed the current information we held on our systems. The provider had regularly updated us with the progress they had made. We reviewed notifications made to us by the service. We received information from the Local Authority and from the local Healthwatch.
The inspection team consisted of five people, the lead Adult Social Care (ASC) inspector, two other ASC inspectors, a specialist advisor (SPA) who was a nurse and an expert by experience. An expert by experience (ExE) is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.
We looked at care records, at staff files, staff duty rosters and at other records relating to the care of people and the running of the home. We talked with people who lived there, with their friends and relatives, with staff and with other professionals involved in the care of people. We observed the practice and environment and used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. We conducted a SOFI where we observed five people during lunch.
We spoke with 13 people who were living at Grove House, seven of their relatives and visitors, and various staff. These were two registered nurses, one senior nursing care assistant, 11 care staff, the activities co-ordinator, the regional manager and the home manager. We also spoke with a visiting community nurse. We reviewed eight care files and eight staff files, looked at training records for staff and examined other records, such as audits, policies and procedures.
We toured the building, and with their permission, were shown people’s rooms and the communal areas. We saw the kitchen, kitchen store rooms and the gardens and we sampled lunch.