About the service:

Pear Tree Court is a residential and nursing care home that was providing care and support to 40 people at the time of the inspection. The home supported people living with dementia and with physical care needs.

People’s experience of using this service:

• People and their relatives told us they were ‘happy’ with the service. A person said, “I’m lucky to live in such a nice place” and relatives described the service as “Very good”, “Excellent” and “Well-run.”

• We had received some feedback of concern prior to our inspection about staffing levels in the home. We found that people were safely cared for but staff supporting people with more complex needs were stretched at times which meant people’s needs were not always met at their preferred times. This could also impact on people’s opportunities to participate in activities when they required the support of staff to do so. We saw the provider was acting to improve this, and staff people and their relatives told us improvements had recently been made. Further activity staff had been recruited and the provider was acting on their plan to improve the deployment and supervision of staff across the home to ensure sufficient staffing to more effectively meet people’s needs.

• People spoke positively about the staff and leadership in the home. We found improvements were required in the training and supervision of staff to ensure training was up to date and completed by all relevant staff and all staff received regular supervision. We have made a recommendation about staff training and supervision.

• The home was purpose built and maintained to a high standard. People and their relatives told us how they enjoyed the facilities available in the home. A person’s relative said, “It’s so clean here, it doesn’t feel like a nursing home, more like a hotel.” People living with dementia benefited from a ‘dementia friendly’ environment which promoted their wellbeing.

• People received care and support based on an assessment of their needs including any areas of risk. People’s healthcare needs were met, by on-site nursing staff and community health care professionals as required. Person centred care plans were in place to guide staff on people’s needs and preferences and people told us they received the care they needed.

• A process was in place to assess people’s mental capacity and where people lacked mental capacity, decisions were usually made in their best interests, with some exceptions. We have made a recommendation about the application of the Mental Capacity Act (2005).

Rating at last inspection: This was the first inspection of this service which was registered on 1 February 2018.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection in line with CQC’s inspection methodology.

Follow up:

• There is no required follow up to this inspection however we will continue to monitor the service through information we receive. We will follow up on the recommendations made in this report at the next inspection.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk