Old Vicarage Care Home

Old Vicarage care home is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care to up to 38 people. The service provides support to older people. The Old Vicarage consists of an adapted building which has also been extended with purpose-built facilities. At the time of our inspection there were 24 people using the service.

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

People lived in a care home which was generally clean, but infection control arrangements were negatively affected by the need for some areas of the care home to be refurbished.

Although people received the necessary support, the provider’s records did not always contain details of the repositioning, and regular continence care, checks carried out by staff to reduce people’s risk of skin breakdown.

We have made a recommendation about ensuring the repositioning and continence checks of people are recorded.

People told us they felt safe in the care home and care staff had received the necessary safeguarding training. There were enough suitably trained staff to meet people’s assessed care needs. People’s prescribed medicines were safely managed, and the provider had improved their medicines audit processes.

People who needed help to move did not always have the correct hoist sling equipment available. However, this was addressed by the registered manager during the inspection.

Care plans, on the provider’s electronic care record system, were not yet fully in place, and staff did not always use the electronic record system effectively. People received appropriate care, but the provider’s care records did not effectively evidence that.

We have made a recommendation about ensuring care records of all the support provided to people by staff are accurate and complete.

People gave us mixed feedback about the meals. We saw they were appetising and well presented, but the provider was in the process of reviewing their menu to take account of people’s preferences.

Refurbishment was underway, and the provider had a plan for this, but some areas of the care home were not in good decorative condition.

People’s care plans were in the process of being transferred onto a new electronic care record system and did not always contain evidence of involvement by people or their relatives in planning the care they received.

People were treated with kindness and compassion by the care staff. Personal care was delivered with due regard for privacy and dignity. People told us the staff were friendly towards them.

Call bell devices were not always accessible to people. However, this was addressed by the registered manager during the inspection.

People told us they enjoyed the activities which were available to them and relatives told us they had seen an improvement in the range of available activities.

Contact with families had been maintained during the COVID-19 pandemic, as far as possible. Formal complaints were rare and were responded to appropriately. However, relatives told they had ongoing concerns about the management of people’s laundry which had not been effectively addressed.

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.

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 the service, under the previous provider, was Good; published on 14 September 2018. The new provider registered with us on 19 December 2020, and this is the first inspection since the new provider took over the service.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. 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 COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.