Humfrey Lodge

Updated 26 January 2022

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

Two inspectors visited the service on 8 December 2021. We limited the amount of time spent at the service due to the pandemic and to minimise risk. And therefore, . And therefore, asked the manager to send us documentation we needed to look at after the site visit.

An Expert by Experience rang and spoke with family members on 10 December 2021. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of service.

Service and service type

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

The service had a registered manager with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

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 information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We focused on observing how people that live in the service were cared for. We also spoke with three people about their experiences. We used the Short Observational Framework for inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing the care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

We spoke with the registered manager, deputy manager, regional manager, infection control lead and four staff.

We viewed a limited number of key records as we were minimising our time at the service.

After the inspection

We received additional information from the service as requested. We spoke with twelve relatives by phone to ask their views of the service.

Updated 26 January 2022

About the service

Humfrey Lodge provides accommodation and personal care support for up 48 people including people living with dementia. The service is provided from within a purpose-built building, with rooms and communal areas all on one level and located within a residential area. The service has a few courtyard gardens which people are able to access if they choose. On the day of our inspection there were 43 people living at the service.

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

When we last visited the service in October 2017, we found that care plans were not as informative as they needed to be and some recording of information was not always accurate.

On this visit we found that improvements had been made to care plans and information was accurate and therefore met peoples needs.

There were enough staff to keep people safe. The manager was working well with the staff team, morale was good and staff had the necessary skills to carry out their job role.

People were supported to have choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests. The manager promoted a person-centred approach to managing restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. They communicated well with people and families to explain any restrictions on visiting.

Staff had received appropriate recruitment checks on their suitability to work at the service and there were enough staff on duty to meet people's needs.

Senior staff carried out regular checks on the quality of care and took action which directly improved the standard of care for people. Regular audits were undertaken.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published October 2017). At this inspection the service has been found good.

Why we inspected

We had received some anonymous concerns with regards to staffing levels in the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. 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 coronavirus and other infection outbreaks effectively.

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

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.