Priory Gardens

Updated 25 December 2020

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.

As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of coronavirus, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control practice was safe, and the service was compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place.

This inspection took place on 15 December 2020 and was announced.

Updated 25 December 2020

About the service:

Priory Gardens is a residential care home that was providing personal and nursing care to 42 people at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

People told us they felt safe and were happy living in Priory Gardens. Many told us of the improvements they had seen since the previous inspection. They felt staff were knowledgeable and confident in their role and were happy and friendly in their approach. Staff had received regular supervision and training and told us they felt valued. They worked well as a team.

People were safe as staff understood how to manage any risks to their wellbeing. Guidance was well documented to help staff to keep people safe, and staff adhered to the guidance in most instances. Recruitment checks were more robust and staff received an appropriate induction. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs, although people told us they sometimes had to wait for staff. We did see some periods of unattended communal areas as staff were always busy, although the general atmosphere was calm and organised.

Medicines were administered safely and the home was clean. The registered manager was pro-active in responding to incidents and accidents, and evidenced learning from such events where necessary.

The registered manager used evidenced based guidance to improve the service. They displayed sound understanding of best practice and used feedback from a variety of sources to continuously improve care. There had been fewer complaints and none about care provision which showed an improving service.

People were supported to eat and drink and visual options helped people to choose. Records for those people at risk of a poor diet were not sufficiently detailed. We recommend records where people were at nutritional risk needed to evidence what measures were in place to address these rather than generic statements. People accessed health and social care services as needed.

There had been significant improvement in obtaining people’s consent to care and treatment. Some records needed updating where people could not consent to their care and treatment. We recommend the capacity assessments are reviewed to ensure people with the relevant legal authority were involved in decisions. People’s privacy and dignity was respected.

There was a comprehensive activity programme for people to engage with in communal areas. We saw people involved and animated during various events.

Care documentation had been made more person-centred and reflective of people’s needs. It was regularly reviewed and audited to ensure it was still current.

The registered manager had worked hard, along with the staff team, to improve the experience of living at Priory Gardens. By using the tools for quality assurance they ensured each aspect was considered in depth regularly and any actions responded to quickly. There had been significant improvements in the culture at the home but more work was needed to ensure this became embedded.

This service has been in special measures. Services that are in Special Measures are kept under review and inspected again within six months. We expect services to make significant improvements within this timeframe. During this inspection this service demonstrated to us that improvements have been made and is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is now out of Special Measures.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection:

Inadequate (Report published 15 August 2018)

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the previous inspection. The service had previously been in breach of five regulations which resulted in three warning notices and two requirement notices. At this inspection we found improvements had been made.

Follow up:

The service will continue to be monitored in line with our inspection programme, and if information of concern is raised, this will be investigated.