Springfield Court Nursing Home

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

At the last inspection in May 2016 the service was rated overall good. At this inspection we found that the service had improved to outstanding.

Why the service was rated outstanding.

The registered manager had been in place for 15 years and was supported by a clinical lead who had also been in place for 12 years. The management team shared a thorough understanding of people in their care and the combination of business and clinical management contributed to the exceptional service delivery. 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.

The service had built on its sustained good rating and demonstrated outstanding qualities across two domains: responsive and well-led. Springfield Court had an inclusive ethos throughout service delivery and this created exceptional positive outcomes for people that lived at the service, people's relatives and staff.

We saw examples of outstanding person-centred care which enabled people who lived at the service to maintain their identity and independence. The team at Springfield Court were confident in positive risk taking and showed how they helped people who lived at the service to achieve their goals and aspirations.

The providers and registered manager worked in a united way to continually review the quality of care and support provided. Staff told us that they thoroughly enjoyed their work and felt included and valued. The providers invested in staff wellbeing and an inclusive family approach was embedded throughout.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. We saw good examples of people being assessed in line with the Mental Capacity Act and when a person lacked capacity staff fully considered their best interests in a person-centred way.

Springfield Court is a passionate provider of social care and this was led from the senior management team. The providers live on site and have owned the service for 30 years. They know the needs of all service users and consider them to be family.

In 2010 the providers built an extension to the service initially with the intent to increase the number of bedrooms available. However, the providers decided to turn the extra space into a 'Theatre of Dreams'. The theatre of dreams is a large communal area for people to access social activities and enjoy time with visitors. Six to eight times each year, the theatre was turn into an extravagant venue and the providers organised West End acts to perform. The elegant dinner evenings were enjoyed by people who lived at the service, their relatives, staff and the wider community. In excess to this the providers told us that they did not want people who were unable to leave their bedroom to miss out and therefore used innovative technology to live stream each event to people's bedroom televisions. This showed an exceptional level of responsive and considerate work achieved and sustained by the service.

We found that the service had sustained and built on its exceptional links with the community. Springfield Court was a community hub and this enabled people who lived at the service to engage in exciting and creative social activities on a frequent basis. The service showed great ingenuity to ensure that its service users had access to their community.

Staff had a very good understanding of medicines management and how to assess individuals' risk in a person-centred way. The environment was clean and well maintained. We found that the providers continually invested and took pride in the building.

There were high staffing levels and a work force with the required skill mix to ensure people's wellbeing, safety and security were protected. A robust recruitment and selection process was in place. This ensured prospective new staff have the right skills and were suitable to work with people living at the service.

The service provided personalised, caring and excellent end of life care. The sensitive team approach meant they could obtain a wealth of information about each person's end of life preferences. We saw staff showed genuine sensitivity and compassion.

Staff engaged with people who lived at the service on a very frequent basis to obtain their feedback and provide them with opportunity to express any need for change. We found that the registered manager was extremely passionate about enabling people to feel involved and listened to. There was a complaints procedure and this was accessible for people who lived at the service and visitors. The manager maintained robust records to show how people's concerns had been dealt with.

The service understood the importance of facilitating positive communication and showed great initiative around the Accessible Information Standard, including treating each person as an individual to ensure that their needs were assessed and facilities provided to enable them to be fully engaged.

We found that the service wholly considered people's equality, diversity and human rights. A non- discriminative workforce meant that the service embraced change and welcomed diversity.

Further information is detailed in the findings below.

The five questions we ask about services and what we found