19 December 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Amber House is a residential care home that provides accommodation and personal care to a maximum of 18 people. The service provides support to older people, some of whom live with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 13 people using the service.
Amber House comprises of 2 houses that have been adapted to create 1 home over 2 floors. Amber House has a shared garden, communal dining room, activity room and lounge area, with a shared wet-room and bathroom facilities. The home provides single and shared bedrooms some of which have en-suite bathrooms. There is a lift and stair lift in the home to support access to the first floor.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The processes in the home to keep people safe had improved since the last inspection but we found some improvements were still needed to ensure the governance systems in the home were effective in monitoring the quality of service.
Risks to people’s safety were being considered through more regular review. For example, there was now a more robust accidents and incidents process being followed by the staff in the home, to reduce the risk of future occurrence and support improving care delivery.
People’s care plans had been reviewed and updated with more detailed information which meant staff now had access to accurate records to ensure care delivered, met actual need.
Staffing numbers had increased in the home, which meant people’s needs were being responded to in a timely way, which promoted their health and well-being.
Mental Capacity Assessments were now decision specific which meant people were supported to have more choice and control of their lives, staff supported people in their best interests and the policies and procedures in the home supported this.
The provider had acted on our recommendations and made changes in medicine storage and record keeping to support safer medicine management.
Staff training was now up to date and staff were receiving regular supervision.
Feedback from people living in Amber House and their relatives was positive about the staff and the registered manager.
The provider continued to work with other agencies in driving improvements in the home.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 30 September 2023) and there were breaches of regulation.
The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
This service has been in Special Measures since 21 August 2023. During this inspection the provider demonstrated that improvements have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.
Why we inspected
We carried out an unannounced inspection of the service on 27 June 2023 where breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve; person centred care, need for consent, safe care and treatment and good governance.
We undertook this focused inspection to check the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Effective and Well-Led.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from Requires Improvement to Good.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Amber House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.