• Care Home
  • Care home

The Firs Care Home

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

2 Lickhill Road, Calne, Wiltshire, SN11 9DD (01249) 812440

Provided and run by:
The Firs Care Home (Calne) Limited

Latest inspection summary

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Our current view of the service

Good

Updated 20 August 2024

Date of assessment: 21 August to 3 September 2024. The Firs Care Home provides the regulated activity Accommodation for persons who require nursing or personal care for up to 32 older people. At the time of this assessment there were 26 people using the service. This assessment was carried out in response to concerns received about staffing numbers. This assessment reviewed 8 quality statements across the key questions of safe and caring. We found a breach of the legal regulation in relation to safe care and treatment. Staff were not following the provider safety measures to make sure people were safe at all times. For example, we found doors to people’s rooms were propped open with objects such as door wedges and chairs. This prevented doors from closing in the event of a fire. We also found staff had removed window restrictors which enabled some windows to be opened wide. Management was not aware of guidance to use bed rails safely, which meant the required checks had not been completed. In addition, we found people experiencing distress did not always have guidance for staff to follow to make sure of a consistently safe approach. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment. There were not always enough staff to meet people’s needs. Following our assessment, the provider informed us staff numbers would be increased for night shifts. New staff received an induction and follow up training when needed. Staff had regular supervision and there were regular staff meetings. Staff had handovers to share information and updates about people’s changing needs. The provider had applied for Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) authorisations as appropriate. Professionals we spoke with all shared positive comments about the service and the care provided.

People's experience of the service

Updated 20 August 2024

People told us they felt safe at the service and that they found the staff to be kind and caring. We also saw positive interactions between people and staff. People had support from staff that knew them, and we saw people were comfortable approaching staff for assistance. While the people we spoke with expressed that they were generally happy with their care, our assessment found elements of care did not meet the expected standards. For example, for 1 person we observed staff had not intervened to make sure their privacy and dignity was maintained at all times whilst they were in their room with the door open. We observed during mealtimes staff did not serve everyone sitting on a table at the same time. This meant some people were eating whilst others waited for their meal for over 10 minutes. We also observed people were not being supported safely due to concerns about some elements of the environment. Whilst people had choice of some aspects of day to day living, we also observed people with dementia not being supported effectively to make simple choices. For example, people were being asked what they wanted for lunch at 10.30am without the use of visual prompts. Prior to and during our assessment we were told there were issues with the hot water at the service. Staff told us the temperature of the water was not consistent and at times hot water had to be sourced from nearby bathrooms. Whilst the provider was investigating this concern it meant people did not have access at all times to hot water. This meant people were reliant on staff to bring hot water to their rooms which limited their independence.