Emsworth House Care Home with Nursing

At the last inspection the service was rated requires improvement. Following this inspection the service is now rated good. The service had made improvements and was no longer in breach of regulations relating to safe care and treatment, staffing and good governance. We assessed 3 of the key questions. The scores for these have been combined with scores based on the last key question ratings.

A new registered manager was in post. Staff spoke highly of the management team and expressed hopes for a period of stability at the service. Staff spoke of a healthy culture where they were encouraged to share their thoughts, identify shortfalls and work together to make improvements. They spoke of working well as a team and of a high level of training and support.

People’s needs were assessed before they moved to the service and kept under continuous review. Staff worked with all agencies involved in people’s care for the best outcomes. People had enough to eat and drink to stay healthy and were supported appropriately to minimise choking risks. Medicines were managed safely.

Staff followed safeguarding processes and systems were effective to manage any safeguarding concerns. Staff understood their responsibilities in relation to mental capacity and consent, supporting people to make decisions related to their care or acting in their best interests.

The service was clean, and we observed staff following infection prevention and control guidelines.

Regular audits and checks were carried out to monitor the service. Incidents and accidents were reported, investigated, and analysed for trends, both at service and provider level. Lessons learned were shared with staff and across the provider’s services.

However, whilst the provider made sure there were enough qualified and skilled staff, the impact of growth in the service and the need to use agency staff was having an impact on people’s experiences of care. People said they would like staff to have more time to spend with them. Recruitment to the team was in progress, including expanding the wellbeing team to deliver more 1:1 support to people.

On both days we visited, we identified risks within the home environment. There was open access to some areas which were intended to be secured for people’s safety. These issues were addressed immediately they were brought to the attention of the registered manager. In response additional checks on the safety of the environment were put in place.