12 July 2016
During a routine inspection
The service had a registered manager. 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.
When we last visited the service in January 2015 we found the provider was not meeting the legal requirements in respect of having sufficient numbers of staff available to meet people's needs. During this inspection we found that sufficient improvements had been made, there were sufficient numbers of suitable staff and people’s needs were met in a timely way.
Risks to people’s health and safety were not always properly assessed and steps to mitigate risks had not always been taken. This was a breach of Regulation 12 and you can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report. People felt safe living at the home and staff were aware of how to protect people from the risk of abuse. People received their medicines as prescribed.
Staff had not received all of the training that would enable them to provide effective care. Staff felt supported and received supervision of their work. People enjoyed the food and were provided with sufficient to eat and drink. People received support from healthcare professionals, such as their GP, when needed. However, referrals to more specialist services had not always been made.
People were asked for their consent, however they had not had the opportunity to sign their records to confirm their consent. The Mental Capacity Act (2005) (MCA) was utilised in order to protect people who were not able to make their own decisions about the care they received.
There were positive relationships between staff and people who lived at the home. People got on well with the staff who cared for them. The day to day decisions people made about what they wanted to do were respected by staff. People were treated with dignity and respect and their right to privacy was upheld.
People were provided with person-centred care and staff understood their needs, although their care plans were not always up to date. There was a range of activities available which people appeared to enjoy. Some people commented that they would like to go out of the home more and work was underway to improve the provision of activities. People knew how to complain and told us they felt comfortable approaching the registered manager and staff.
When we last visited the service in January 2015 we found the provider was not meeting the legal requirements in respect of having effective quality monitoring systems in place. During this inspection we saw that, while some improvements had been made, further work was required to enable the quality monitoring systems to be fully effective. The quality monitoring systems used did not always identify issues or result in improvements to the service people received. Staff did not always maintain accurate records about the care people needed or the care they had provided.
There was an open and relaxed culture in the home and the registered manager led by example. People were asked for their opinion about the service they received and their suggestions were acted upon.