Archived: Devonshire House

Updated 25 February 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

We inspected this service on 06 October 2016 and the inspection was unannounced. We visited again on 17 October 2016 and this inspection day was announced. The inspection was carried out by one inspector, a specialist adviser and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. Our expert had the experience of supporting an elderly relative.

Before the inspection, the manager completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

Before we carried out our inspection we reviewed the information we held on the service. This would include statutory notifications that had been sent to us in the last year. This is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We would use this information to plan what areas we were going to focus on during our inspection.

During our inspection we observed how the staff interacted with people who used the service and spoke with eight people who used the service, three people’s relatives, the registered manager, 11 care staff, two staff in administration and maintenance. We spoke with a regular visitor who provided therapy and two health care professionals during and after the inspection.

We also looked at six people’s care records and examined information relating to the management of the service, such as health and safety records, medicines, staff recruitment and training records, quality monitoring audits and information about complaints.

Updated 25 February 2017

We inspected this service on 06 October 2016 and the inspection was unannounced. We visited again on 17 October 2016 and this inspection day was announced. During our last inspection of this service on 11 September 2013 we found that the service was compliant with the regulations.

Devonshire House can provide accommodation and personal care for up to 65 older people, some living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 61 people living at the service.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

On day one of our inspection we gave feedback to the registered manager and other supporting managers from within Anchor. Feedback was listened to and taken seriously. An action plan was devised and sent straight to the Inspector responsible. On day two of the inspection we found that many of the matters raised at feedback from day one had been addressed. This responsive approach to matters raised gave us confidence in the management and provider.

Example of matters raised initially were in relation to medicines management, safety with moving and handling whilst using equipment such as hoists and windows not being restricted. The plan devised to address these concerns was well on its way to be completed to ensure safety of people was maintained. This open and transparent culture of learning from events so no one else was placed at risk was key to the management approach. Staff said the management were available and responsive to suggestions. The culture that staff spoke of was one of listening and responding to matters raised.

People using the service told us that they loved the environment that they lived in and felt well supported by the staff whom they believed were very caring and knew their needs. We observed a staff group who were caring and compassionate and wanted to do right by people. Staff had sufficient time to spend with people and there were a variety of interests for people to follow. If people had concerns then these were dealt with appropriately and examples shown were that the manager wanted to ensure no repeat events. People’s views were sought and in a recent case people were part of staff recruitment.

Staff told us that they were well supported with training and direction from managers and welcomed the changes made by the new provider. Staff were becoming enlightened to new ways of working that they had previously not been fully aware of. Examples included how in practice to implement the Mental Capacity Act and a better understanding of how to support people living with dementia.

We found that medicines could be better managed to ensure that people received their medicines as the prescriber intended. In addition records relating to health monitoring and food and fluid in take could be better completed to ensure monitoring is consistent. You can see what action we have told the provider to take at the back of this report.