Holywell Nursing Home

Updated 10 April 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. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

This inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type:

Holywell Nursing Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. The provider was a sole provider who worked within the service, there was therefore no legal requirement for a manager to be registered with the CQC.

Notice of inspection:

The inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection:

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. We reviewed other information that we held about the service such as notifications. These are events that happen in the service that the provider is legally required to tell us about. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection:

We spoke with six people who lived at the service and three relatives. We also spoke with six members of staff. This included the provider, senior staff members care staff and kitchen staff. We reviewed a range of records. This included some people’s care records and medication records. We also reviewed records relating to the management of the service such as incident and accident records, meeting minutes, training records, policies and audits.

After the inspection:

We received clarification from the service to validate evidence found. We contacted five members of staff and four external healthcare professionals who have had contact with the service to gain their views. We received feedback from three staff and three healthcare professionals which we have used to support our judgements in the report.

Updated 10 April 2020

About the service:

Holywell Nursing Home is registered to provide accommodation with nursing and personal care for up to 30 people. When we visited, 18 people lived there.

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

We received positive feedback from people, their relatives and healthcare professionals. All of the people we spoke with felt well cared for and spoke positively of staff.

People lived in a service that was well led by a provider with staff committed to promoting the ethos of the home. People felt safe at the home and with the staff who supported them. The staff understood their responsibilities and how to protect people from abuse. There were adequate numbers of staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Medicines were administered in line with people’s needs. The environment was clean, and health and safety risks were monitored.

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 supported this practice. There were systems in place that ensured people who were deprived of their liberty were done so with the appropriate legal authority. We found improvements could be made in relation to the application and recording of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 legislation, we have made a recommendation about this.

People were cared for by staff who knew them well and were kind and compassionate. Staff were happy in their jobs and wanted to provide the best care they could. Our observations showed people and staff had positive relationships. Staff were trained and told us they were well supported by the provider and senior staff.

People received care and support in a way that met their personal needs and enabled them to follow their own routines, interests and beliefs. However, we identified that improvements in the process of obtaining and recording people’s preferences about their end of life care wishes was needed. We have made a recommendation about this.

There were organised activities and we received positive feedback about this. People were supported to maintain contact with friends and family members. Whilst no complaints had been received in the last 12 months, people and their relatives felt able to approach the provider or staff to raise concerns.

There was an effective governance system in place to monitor the health, safety and welfare of people at the service. The provider had a system to improve care through continual learning. Good relationships had been built within the local community and with external healthcare professionals.

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 September 2017)

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive. We will inspect in line with our inspection programme or sooner if required.