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CQC report explained · a nursing home, run by Welltower

Priors House

Old Milverton Lane, Blackdown, Leamington Spa, CV32 6RW

Outstandingpublished 2 December 2023, 2 years ago

Rated Outstanding: inspectors found the service performing exceptionally well.

The latest report, explained

What inspectors found, December 2023

Rated Outstanding overall; inspectors found safe, effective care and exceptional leadership, while some authorisations for restrictions on people’s liberty were awaiting renewal.

This was an unannounced focused inspection on 12 and 16 October 2023. Inspectors reviewed information from before the visit, spoke with people, relatives, staff and health professionals, and checked care plans, medicines records, daily records, audits and recruitment files.

The home was rated Good for Safe and Effective, and Outstanding for Well-led. Inspectors found people felt safe, medicines were managed safely, staffing was sufficient, care plans reflected people’s needs, and staff worked well with health professionals.

The strongest findings were about leadership and culture. Staff were described as caring and committed to helping people live meaningful lives. The overall rating improved from Good at the previous inspection in 2019 to Outstanding.

What inspectors praised

  • Positive staff culture

    Staff were proud of their work and supported people as individuals. Inspectors found an inclusive culture where people and staff were valued.

    “There was an inclusive culture where everybody was valued.” from the report

  • Meaningful lives

    Staff helped people maintain relationships, revisit important places and try activities that mattered to them. The report describes several positive personal outcomes.

    “People were supported to live meaningful lives with significantly positive personal outcomes.” from the report

  • Safe care

    People felt safe, risks were identified and staff knew how to respond. Inspectors found enough staff and safe recruitment practices.

    “People felt safe living at Priors House.” from the report

  • Strong improvement systems

    The home used audits, action plans and reviews of incidents to improve care. Staff were encouraged to be open about mistakes and learn from them.

    “There was a strong culture of learning from incidents and individual mistakes and sharing information with the team.” from the report
What inspectors were concerned about

  • As-required medicine guidance

    minor

    Inspectors found that guidance for some as-required medicines was basic and not sufficiently personalised. The home acted on this feedback during the inspection.

    “We gave feedback to the registered manager that these guidelines would benefit from more person-centred and detailed information.” from the report

  • Authorisations awaiting renewal

    needs fixing

    Some authorisations relating to restrictions on people’s liberty had expired and were awaiting renewal. The report says this was linked to significant delays by the authorising body, and the home was tracking the applications.

    “Some people's DOLs had expired and were awaiting renewal due to significant delays in processing DOLs applications and renewals by the authorising body.” from the report
Questions to ask them, based on this report
  1. 01How do you make sure authorisations for restrictions on people’s liberty are renewed promptly when they expire?
  2. 02What changes were made to the guidance for as-required medicines after the inspection?
  3. 03How do you maintain enough experienced staff when there is unexpected absence or when newer staff are working?
  4. 04How are people with skin damage, reduced mobility or other clinical risks supported and monitored?
  5. 05How will you keep families informed about changes in health, accidents, injuries or safeguarding concerns?

This was a focused inspection of Safe, Effective and Well-led only; Caring and Responsive were not inspected and the other ratings carried over from the previous inspection. This explanation was written from the published report of 2 December 2023 by an AI system and checked against the report text: every quoted line appears in the report. It is a guide to the report, not a substitute for it. Read the full report on cqc.org.uk.

The story over the years

Every inspection of Priors House

4 rated inspections over 7 years: the service has improved, from Requires improvement to Outstanding.

  1. December 2023Outstandingcurrent ratingup from Good
    Safe: GoodEffective: GoodCaring: GoodResponsive: OutstandingWell-led: Outstanding

    Read what inspectors found at Priors House →

  2. December 2019Goodstayed Good
    Safe: GoodEffective: GoodWell-led: Good

    We are reading this report · the original is on cqc.org.uk

  3. May 2017Goodup from Requires improvement
    Safe: GoodEffective: GoodCaring: GoodResponsive: GoodWell-led: Good

    Read this report on cqc.org.uk

  4. June 2016Requires improvement
    Safe: GoodEffective: GoodCaring: GoodResponsive: Requires improvementWell-led: Requires improvement

    Read this report on cqc.org.uk

  5. June 2014

    Registered with the Care Quality Commission on 20 June 2014.

Ratings and report dates from the Care Quality Commission. A service can also be visited without a new rating being published, so the timeline shows published inspections, not every contact the CQC has had with the service.

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