Thornfield Grange

Updated 10 March 2023

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 1 inspector.

Service and service type

Thornfield Grange is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Thornfield Grange is a care home with nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post. They were on annual leave at the time of our visit and we carried out the inspection with the deputy manager.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced. Inspection activity started on 22 February 2022 and ended on 28 February 2023. We visited the service on 22 February 2023.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority, care professionals and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with 5 people who use the service, and 3 relatives. We spoke with 7 staff including the deputy manager, nurse and 6 support staff

We reviewed a range of records. This included 4 people’s care records and medicine records. We looked at 4 staff files in relation to recruitment. We also viewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, policies and procedures.

Updated 10 March 2023

About the service

Thornfield Grange is a care home and provides accommodation and support for up to 9 people living with a learning disability and/or autistic spectrum disorder. There were 9 people living at the service when we visited.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support

People were actively encouraged to access the community and develop life skills and independence.

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 on the whole supported this practice.

Right Care

Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people and each other. The service worked proactively with other agencies to ensure people's wellbeing, and additions to the staff team of psychology and other therapy support meant best practice guidance was consistently followed. Where people had support, this was flexible, available when they needed it and to the level they needed. Staff understood and responded to people’s individual needs. Staff understood and supported people’s individual communication ways.

Right culture

The culture at the service had significantly improved, with a highly motivated, knowledgeable and empathetic staff team. Staff placed people’s aspirations, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. They sought advice and feedback from everyone involved in people's care. The environment was bright and highly personalised. Staff were aware of and working to best practice guidance for supporting people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 11 July 2019). At the time we found the service needed to make improvements regarding the environment and culture.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced inspection in May 2019 and found improvements were needed. We undertook this focused inspection to check the service had followed their action plan and to confirm improvements were made. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions effective, caring and well-led which contain those improvements.

We assessed whether the service is applying the principles of Right support right care right culture. We looked at infection prevention and control measures. 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.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Thornfield Grange on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.