About the service London Care [Chestnut House] provides personal care and support to people living in an extra care housing scheme. This consists of 42 individual flats within a staffed building with some communal areas. A separate organisation manages the building. All 32 people using the service currently living at Chestnut House received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
At the last inspection, in 2018 improvements were required. the service provided was not always caring. People did not always receive a caring service as staff did not always have enough time to carry out agreed tasks or arrive at the agreed time.
At this inspection, improvements had been made and people and their relatives now received care and support from staff that were kind and caring and staff now had enough time to carry out their care calls.
People received a service that was safe for them to use and staff to work in. People said that staff did their utmost to meet their care needs and they did receive support at the agreed time, although occasionally they may be a little delayed whilst meeting other people’s needs. They were informed if staff were going to be late. People had risks to themselves assessed, monitored and reviewed. This enabled them to take acceptable risks, enjoy their lives and live in a safe way. Accidents, incidents and safeguarding concerns were reported, investigated and recorded. There were enough staff who had been appropriately recruited to meet people’s needs. Medicine was safely administered by trained staff.
People and their relatives said they liked the way staff provided care which met their needs. Staff provided them with care and support which was friendly, caring and empathetic. They felt staff acknowledged and respected their privacy, dignity and confidentiality. People were enabled to retain their independence by being encouraged and supported to do the things for themselves, that they still could. This promoted their self-worth and improved their quality of life.
The culture of the service was open and honest with a clearly defined vision and values that staff said they understood and followed. This was done in a way that was kind and sympathetic. The quality assurance systems and audits identified issues, that were then addressed. Staff had areas of responsibility and accountability that they were comfortable to take responsibility for and prepared to report any concerns. There were well-established working partnerships with health care professionals. Records including people’s daily logs and care plans were up to date, as well as staff information. People said the registered manager and staff had a caring and responsive approach.
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 good (published 28 February 2019).
Why we inspected
This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating and specific concerns regarding the caring question of the previous report.
As no concerns were identified in relation to the key questions Effective, and Responsive, we decided not to inspect these questions. Ratings from the previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
The overall rating for the service remains good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for London Care [Chestnut House] 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.