Stowlangtoft Hall is a residential care home with nursing that provides accommodation and personal care for up to 44 older people, some of whom are living with dementia. There were 37 people living in the service when we inspected on 8 and 9 October 2018. This was an unannounced comprehensive inspection.

Stowlangtoft Hall 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.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC 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.

We previously inspected this service in January 2016 and rated it Good overall. Since that date the provider, a family company, changed their company name from Stowlangtoft Healthcare LLP to Stow Healthcare Group Limited. This resulted in a new registration for the provider and the ‘archiving’ of the previous rating. At this inspection we found that the home had developed further and we have rated both the key questions of responsive and caring Outstanding at this inspection. The overall rating is Outstanding.

People received exceptionally personalised care and support. Activities staff were especially enthusiastic and went to great lengths to understand people's hopes and wishes. Creative ways were found to enable people to live full lives. People were encouraged to do things they enjoyed and found meaningful, this included social activities based on people's interests. Group and individual activities were on offer and excellent links had been forged with local groups who were regular and popular visitors.

Staff had an excellent appreciation of people's individual needs and wishes. People were supported by staff who were exceptionally kind and caring. Staff across all departments took care to ensure all their interactions with people were meaningful. There was a strong family ethos across the service, staff were creative in their efforts to ensure people were not socially isolated and were able to retain the personal relationships that mattered to them. People's individual religious and spiritual needs were recognised and met. The care people received at the end of their lives was excellent.

There were sufficient staff on duty with the right skills and knowledge to provide the care and support people needed. Staff spent time with people, both during care tasks and at other times throughout the day and people’s care was not rushed. People continued to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible

Staff understood their responsibilities for safeguarding people, including recognising signs of abuse and harm and how to report. Medicines were stored and managed safely, and were administered as prescribed. Staff, on occasions, didn’t sign to state they had administered people’s topical medicines or that they had supported them with drinks. This was actively being followed up by the registered manager.

The service was clean and very well maintained, with regular health and safety checks and up-to-date servicing. People were protected from the risk of infections by staff who ensured that the environment was kept clean and infection control procedures were followed.

People were supported to maintain their health and prompt action was taken by staff to refer people to healthcare professionals when they became unwell or their health needs changed.

Concerns and complaints were viewed positively and seen as an opportunity to bring about improvement. The provider had quality assurance processes in place, which helped to maintain