This inspection took place on 10 January 2017 and was unannounced.

Victoria Chatsworth is a nursing home registered for up to 22 people. It provides nursing care and personal support to older people with nursing care needs usually over sixty-five years of age. There were 19 people living at the service. The service is in a large detached house, arranged over two floors accessed by a passenger lift. The ground and first floor was used to provide people with nursing care, support and treatment. Long term care and respite care was provided. At the time of the inspection a contract was in place to provide six community short term beds (CSTS.) This is where people have been in hospital, or to prevent hospital admission and need a short period of rehabilitation before returning home.

This short-term rehabilitation is a joint partnership between Brighton and Hove City Council and the Sussex Community NHS Trust who work together to provide co-ordinated care. People have the guidance and regular support from the physiotherapists, occupational therapists, consultants for elderly care, GPs and a community mental health nurse. These specialists had worked with people to improve their independence and mobility prior to returning home.

There was a registered manager for the service. 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.

Senior staff carried out a range of internal audits, including care planning, checks that people were receiving the care they needed, medication, and infection control. However, regular fire and health and safety checks of the building had only just started to be completed and so it was not possible to evidence this practice had been fully embedded in the service. This meant it had not been identified the PEEP’s (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan) in place for people in the event of a fire had been regularly reviewed. The purpose of a PEEP is to provide staff and emergency workers with the necessary information to evacuate people who cannot safely get themselves out of a building unaided during an emergency. Residents meetings had not been regularly held to enable them to give their views on the care and support provided. Although there were opportunities for people to give feedback using the Choices NHS website, questionnaires had only just started to be used to gain feedback in the service. Therefore people had not had a range of opportunities to formally give their feedback, and for the staff to demonstrate how the service has moved forward and made improvements following feedback received. These are areas of practice which require improvement.

People told us they felt safe. One person told us, “There is always a member of staff around to reassure me. You only have to ring the bell and they come.” Another person told us, “I feel safe because I always get my pills on time.” A third person said, “It’s very safe here the carers are very good-they help me a lot.” People were cared for by staff who had been recruited through safe procedures. Staff told us they were supported to develop their skills and knowledge by receiving training which helped them to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively. Training records were kept up-to-date, and plans were in place to promote good practice and develop the knowledge and skills of staff. People were comfortable talking with the staff, and told us they knew who to speak to if they had any concerns. Accidents and incidents had been recorded and appropriate action had been taken and recorded by the registered manager. There was a maintenance programme in place which ensured repairs were carried out in a timely way. Medicines were stored correctly and there were systems to