The Old Rectory Retirement Home

Updated 3 January 2020

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.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

The Old Rectory Retirement Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The provider was an individual who was registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

Our inspection was unannounced and took place on 10 December 2019.

What we did before the inspection

Before the inspection, we reviewed relevant information that we had about the service including any notifications of safeguarding or incidents affecting the safety and wellbeing of people. A notification is information about important events, which the provider is required to tell us about by law. We also checked the last inspection report, the provider's action plan and requested feedback from social care professionals.

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

During the inspection

We spoke with the responsible person who was the provider of the service, the home manager, a head of care and two care staff. We also spoke with four people living in the home and with two relatives.

We reviewed documents and records that related to people’s care and the management of the service. We reviewed five people’s care plans and four staff recruitment files. We also looked at staff training records, quality audits, rotas, complaint and incident records.

Updated 3 January 2020

About the service

The Old Rectory Retirement Home is a residential care home in Canterbury, Kent providing personal care to older people. The home can support up to 20 people and at the time of the inspection, 15 people were living in the home. The home is a two floor building. Each floor or unit has separate adapted facilities.

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

The home was safe for people. There were procedures to protect people from abuse and staff understood how to report abuse. Medicines were managed safely and people received their medicines as prescribed. Staff were recruited safely and there were enough staff to provide support to people. Risks associated with people's needs were assessed to protect them from harm. Staff followed infection control procedures to maintain the hygiene and cleanliness of the home. Accidents and incidents that had taken place in the home were reviewed to learn lessons to prevent similar incidents from re-occurring. The home's environment and premises was maintained to ensure it was safe.

Staff were provided with suitable training to ensure their skills and knowledge were up to date. Staff felt supported by the management team and received regular supervision to monitor their performance and discuss any issues. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were supported to eat and drink healthy meals of their choice. The home worked with health care professionals, such as GPs, nurses and dentists to ensure people's health needs were met.

Staff were respectful and caring towards people. Staff knew how to communicate with people who had difficulty speaking. Staff understood the importance of promoting equality and diversity. People were encouraged to maintain their independence as much as they could. Staff interacted and engaged with people throughout the day.

People were protected from social isolation. Activities took place in the home and people were encouraged to participate in them if they wished. People and their relatives were supported to make complaints about the home. People received appropriate end of life care and support.

There were quality assurance systems to monitor the safety of the home through audits, checks and obtaining feedback from people and relatives.

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 10 May 2017).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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.