This inspection took place on 12, 13 and 19 April 2017 and was an unannounced inspection.

This was the provider’s first inspection at this location since making changes to their registration with us in April 2015. At the time of our last inspection in July 2014, the home was registered as two separate locations.

Herondale Kingfisher provides accommodation for up to 79 people who require nursing and personal care for their physical and/or dementia care needs. The home is purpose built and is separated in to two different buildings; Herondale and Kingfisher. Herondale provides accommodation for people who have nursing and dementia care needs, whilst Kingfisher specialises in providing nursing care to people with general nursing care needs. At the time of our inspection, there were 69 people living at the home.

There was a registered manager in post. 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.

People were supported by enough members of staff, who had been recruited safely in order to meet their needs. There was a calm, relaxed and homely feel to the home and everyone we spoke with told us that staff were kind, caring, helpful and respectful.

People were protected from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm because staff received training and understood different types of abuse and knew what actions were needed to keep people safe. The provider had also ensured effective systems were in place to report and investigate any concerns raised, which included working collaboratively with external agencies and reporting these to us, as required by law.

Staff had the knowledge and skills they required to care for people safely and effectively. This included the safe management of medicines so that people received their medicines as prescribed.

People were encouraged to be as independent as possible and were treated with dignity and respect. People had access to enough food and drink in accordance with their dietary requirements and reported to enjoy the food prepared for them.

People and/or their representatives were involved in the planning and review of their care, as far as reasonably possible and were aware of the complaints policy and procedure. The provider sought feedback from people who used the service and/or their representatives, as well as from visiting professionals in order to drive improvements.

Whilst the provider had some management systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service provided to people, these were not always effective in identifying the shortfalls identified during the inspection. Record keeping, particularly around medicine administration processes, accidents, incidents and care monitoring, required improvement. Nevertheless, the registered manager was receptive to this feedback and was open and honest in their communication with us throughout the inspection process.