Archived: Acocks Green Nursing Home

Updated 6 July 2015

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.

This unannounced inspection took place on 14 May 2015 and was carried out by three inspectors, one of which was a pharmacy inspector 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. For example for this inspection the expert had experience of service provided to older people.

Before our inspection we looked at the information we held about the service. This included information received from the provider about deaths, accidents/incidents and safeguarding alerts which they are required to send us by law. We considered information shared with us by local authorities.

During our inspection we spoke with nine people, nine relatives, four care staff, two nurses, the manager and deputy manager.

We looked at the care records of three people to see how their care and treatment was planned and delivered. Other records looked at included three staff recruitment and training files; to check

staff were recruited safely, trained and supported to deliver care to meet each person’s individual needs. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service and a selection of the service’s policies and procedures, to ensure people received a quality service.

Some of the people were unable to tell us in detail about how they were supported and cared for. We used the short observational framework tool (SOFI) to help us to assess if people’s needs were appropriately met. SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

Updated 6 July 2015

This was an unannounced inspection and it took place on 14 May 2015.

Acocks Green Nursing Home provides long term nursing care and temporary placements where people were supported to prepare to return home or to other care provisions after a stay in hospital. The home was able to provide care for up to 56 people. There were 46 people in the home at the time of our inspection.

There was no registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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.

Processes were in place to reduce the risk of harm to people. Staff were trained and knew how to help to keep people safe. Risks to people’s care was assessed and managed. Not everyone in the home received their medicines as prescribed.

There were sufficient numbers of staff to meet the needs of people. Staff were safely recruited and had the training they needed to meet people’s needs however recent updates had not been completed.

People who were able to make decisions were supported to consent to the care they received. People who were unable to make decisions were supported by people involved in their care to help make decisions that were in their best interests.

People were supported to make choices. People were able to choose what they ate and drank and received support to eat their meals where this was needed. People had access to a range of health care professionals to support their care and the provider had processes in place to ensure regular health checks were undertaken as necessary.

Staff were caring towards people and respected people’s privacy, dignity and independence. People’s needs were assessed and planned so that they received a service that focused on their individual needs and abilities. People were able to raise concerns with staff and managers and felt confident they would be addressed.

Processes were in place to monitor the quality of the service but some improvements were needed to ensure people received a safe and consistent service. There had been changes in the staff team and the use of agency staff had decreased so people had more continuity of care.