Little Hayes

Updated 27 May 2021

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection team consisted of two inspectors.

Service and service type

Little Hayes is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a 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 did not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission at the time of the inspection. However, the acting manager had started the application process.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because we needed to be sure that the provider or manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed the information, we had received about the service, including previous inspection reports and notifications. Notifications are information about specific important events the service is legally required to send to us. The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 15 people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with 11 members of staff including the service manager, the health and safety manager, the manager, the service auditor, a housekeeper, a chef and five care staff.

We reviewed the safety of the environment, medicine processes, looked at records relating to staff recruitment, reviewed infection control processes and observed interactions between staff and people.

After the inspection

We reviewed a range of records. This included people's care records and risk assessments and a variety of records relating to the management of the service, such as, quality assurance records, training information, records of accidents and incidents, policies and procedures and additional supporting information provided.

We spoke with one professional who regularly visits the service, one additional staff member and two relatives.

We continued to seek clarification from the management team to validate evidence found.

Updated 27 May 2021

About the service

Little Hayes is a care home which accommodates up to 34 people in one adapted building. Little Hayes is registered to provide accommodation and personal care for adults with dementia or physical health and support needs. At the time of the inspection there were 26 people living at the service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were happy living at Little Hayes, spoke positively about the care they received and told us they felt safe.

People received their prescribed medicines as required. There were safe arrangements in place for obtaining, storing and disposing of medicines. However, we found some minor concerns with medicines stored in the fridge, which the manager addressed immediately.

Recruitment practices were effective and there were sufficient numbers of staff available to meet people's needs in a safe and unhurried way. People were protected from avoidable harm and individual, environmental and infection control risks were managed appropriately.

People's care plans and risk assessments contained detailed information about them and their care and support needs, to help staff deliver care that was individual to each person. These were reviewed regularly to ensure the care and support provided to people, continued to meet their needs.

People were supported to access health and social care professionals when needed, received enough to eat and drink and were happy with the food provided. Staff had received appropriate training and support to enable them to carry out their role safely. They received regular supervision to help develop their skills and support them in their role.

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.

The service had a positive person-centred culture. Both people and staff told us the manager was approachable. The service worked in partnership with other agencies to aid joined up, person centred care provision.

People and their relatives felt the manager was open, approachable and supportive. Everyone was confident they would take actions to address any concerns promptly. There were effective governance systems in place to identify any concerns in the service and drive improvement.

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 requires improvement published 22 March 2019.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe, effective and well-led only.

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.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Little Hayes on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.