Heeley Bank Care Home

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

During our assessment of this key question, we found concerns around the accuracy of information that was recorded in peoples plans and used by staff. This placed people at risk of avoidable harm. Professionals who work with the service told us that they had experienced issues with the way that the service shared information and used information given to them. However, people and their relatives told us that they felt included in the care planning process, and they were able to access support from health care professionals when they needed it.

This service scored 58 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

People and their relatives told us they felt included in their care planning and were kept up to date with changes in their care plans. A relative told us ‘The care plan was established with me, they noticed when [my relative] needed any changes.’

Staff members told us they felt they had a good understanding of peoples care and support needs. The management team advised that peoples care plans were in the process of being updated and acknowledged that there were areas for improvement. Some plans and incidents reported at the service lacked sufficient detail. The management team advised that they were implementing strategies to ensure changes in peoples care and support needs were shared effectively with staff members. These changes will take time to embed.

The documentation and processes used at the service did not ensure that consistent and up to date information was always recorded. Incident reports lacked sufficient detail to allow for meaningful future learning. Incorrect information relating to people’s specialised diets was identified in kitchen serving areas, this placed people at risk of avoidable harm. Identified issues were reported to the management team who completed actions to address these issues.

People were happy with the care they received and told us they were involved in the care planning process.

The management team at the service told us that improvements were needed to people’s plans and reports relating to them and told us they were in the process of implementing improvements.

Inconsistent and out of date information was found in plans and in kitchen service areas. During the inspection some people were observed to be supported in ways that was not consistent with their care plans, including plans devised by speech and language therapists in relation to safe nutritional intake. This placed people at risk of avoidable harm. The management team had implemented processes to update people’s plans however these will take time to embed and result in improvements.

People told us they felt that staff members at the service worked well together, and gave examples of when they had needed the help of an outside professional, this was arranged. A person told us ‘I spoke to a nurse as I was having some problems, they contacted the GP for me.’

The management team told us there were issues in relation to some staff not fulfilling all elements of their role and that further training was being explored to manage this. Staff told us they felt they were able to receive and utilise new information about the people they supported through handovers and an app that is used internally within the organisation, however these views were not shared by visiting professionals.

Professionals from health and social care who visit the service raised concerns about the ability of the service to effectively handover information to staff about peoples care needs that is accurate. Examples were given in relation to referrals to outside agencies not being made and staff being unaware of information that had been passed to the service. Some professionals we spoke to referred to a lack of leadership and a chaotic atmosphere within the service during visits. Professionals also told us that support offered to the service to improve standards had been accepted by the management team who were engaging with this.

Processes at the service had not ensured that information from outside professionals was utilised effectively to ensure safe care delivery in line with agreed actions. This placed people at risk of avoidable harm. The service did have a process for sharing information should a person go to a new service, for example hospital admission, however this was reliant on the information within existing plans being accurate which was not always the case.

People told us that they were happy with the support they received from the service and staff supported them to access healthcare, for example from the dentist or opticians.

Managers told us that there were some issues with staff not recording clinical observations when required which had resulted in additional governance processes being added to check that these were completed. Managers advised that they were in the process of implementing additional training for staff to improve this area.

The processes in place for monitoring the health of people within the service had not ensured that accurate information was documented in a timely manner. Some monitoring information was missing from plans or in some instances lacked sufficient detail. The visiting professionals we spoke to told us that at times information requested from the service was not always received quickly and what was sent often lacked detail, concerns were also raised around requested clinical observations not always taking place. This placed people at risk of avoidable harm.

We did not look at Monitoring and improving outcomes during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.

We did not look at Consent to care and treatment during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.