Walsall Nursing Home Out Of Special Measures

A Walsall care home rated as inadequate following a visit by the Care Quality Commission in August 2017, is now out of special measures.

Ash Grange Nursing Home has seen improvements in all five of the CQC’s questions (Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led) and is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. The home is now rated as ‘good’ in both the Safe and Effective categories.

During the visit in August 2017, the CQC found there were not enough staff to meet people’s needs safely, people’s needs had not been assessed or managed to reduce the risk of avoidable harm, residents did not receive care that was responsive to their needs and systems and processes to monitor the safety and quality of care people received was not effective.

But now following an unannounced inspection on 21 and 23 February 2018, inspectors from the CQC found the home was now following regulations:

• Residents said they felt safe and staff knew how to report concerns and escalate risks about people’s safety. Risks to people’s health and care needs were assessed and effectively managed. There were sufficient numbers of staff available to meet people’s needs.
• Lessons were learnt following incidents and effective infection control procedures were followed.
• Staff had the skills and knowledge to meet people’s needs. Staff sought people’s consent before providing care. People’s capacity to make specific decisions had been assessed and care records reflected how decisions were made in a person’s best interest.
• People and their relatives had been involved in the assessment and review of their care. People and their relatives knew who to contact if they were concerned about any aspect of their care and were confident issues would be dealt with appropriately.
• Systems and processes to monitor the quality of the service were effective at improving and identifying concerns.

Ash Grange Nursing Home also won the ‘Most Improved Safety Culture’ Award at this year’s Walsall SPACE Conference where Elaine Proud, Area Quality Director at HC-One, spoke about the progress Ash Grange have made. Click here to view the video.

Elaine said: “I was called in October last year to come and help out at the home that safe to say had some safety concerns after the CQC inspection back in August 2017. At the time of meeting the team initially, they were pretty despondent and embarrassed by the outcome of the inspection.

“I was very fortunate to have a team that were willing and supportive in wanting to make things better. Caroline Maries-Tillott, Quality Improvement Lead at Walsall Healthcare Trust, suggested the team at Ash Grange to go onto Appreciative Inquiry training to help with adopting positive psychology and to improve staff wellbeing/resilience.

“It was definitely after this training there was something they came back with that gave them a sense of hope that they can turn things round with the right resources, leadership and guidance.

“In such a short amount of time, something great has been instilled at the home which has resulted in progress. Kindness and integrity is the start of any good quality care and Ash Grange have certainly shown that in abundance to help turn things around.

“To hear comments from the inspectors following their recent inspection such as: ‘it feels like a different home and that culture and leadership had improved’ felt great not just for me but for the team and everyone at the home.”

Caroline adds: “It’s quite remarkable really what has been achieved at Ash Grange in a short amount of time to go from inadequate to now out of special measures. I’m really proud of everyone at the home and each and everyone one of them have played their part in taking Ash Grange out of special measures.”